Marvell read by Classic Poetry Aloud:

http://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/

Giving voice to the poetry of the past.

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An Epitaph

by Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678)

Enough; and leave the rest to Fame!

'Tis to commend her, but to name.

Courtship which, living, she declined,

When dead, to offer were unkind:

Nor can the truest wit, or friend,

Without detracting, her commend.

To say—she lived a virgin chaste

In this age loose and all unlaced;

Nor was, when vice is so allowed,

Of virtue or ashamed or proud;

That her soul was on Heaven so bent,

No minute but it came and went;

That, ready her last debt to pay,

She summ'd her life up every day;

Modest as morn, as mid-day bright,

Gentle as evening, cool as night:

—'Tis true; but all too weakly said.

'Twas more significant, she's dead.