An Epitaph by Andrew Marvell

Published: April 16, 2008, 3:59 p.m.

b"Marvell read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\\nhttp://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/\\nGiving voice to the poetry of the past.\\n\\n---------------------------------------------\\n\\nAn Epitaph\\nby Andrew Marvell (1621 \\u2013 1678)\\n\\nEnough; and leave the rest to Fame!\\n'Tis to commend her, but to name.\\nCourtship which, living, she declined,\\nWhen dead, to offer were unkind:\\nNor can the truest wit, or friend,\\nWithout detracting, her commend.\\n\\nTo say\\u2014she lived a virgin chaste\\nIn this age loose and all unlaced;\\nNor was, when vice is so allowed,\\nOf virtue or ashamed or proud;\\nThat her soul was on Heaven so bent,\\nNo minute but it came and went;\\nThat, ready her last debt to pay,\\nShe summ'd her life up every day;\\nModest as morn, as mid-day bright,\\nGentle as evening, cool as night:\\n\\u2014'Tis true; but all too weakly said.\\n'Twas more significant, she's dead."