Summary

The poem begins with the speaker imagining that some time after his death, a grave digger will break open his grave "some second guest to entertain" (2). He notes parenthetically that graves, like women, often serve as beds for more than one person. The speaker explains that whomever digs up his body will find "a bracelet of bright hair about the bone" (6). The speaker wonders if the grave digger would leave their bodies there untouched, assuming that "there a loving couple lies" who had attempted to connect themselves in the afterlife with the piece of hair (8).

But the speaker thinks that, if they are dug up "in a time or land, / Where mis-devotion doth command," then the grave digger will take their remains to the bishop and the king. Then, the speaker imagines, they will be declared relics and enjoy the same status of Mary...