C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
On my First Daughter
By Ben Jonson (15721637)
H
Mary, the daughter of their youth;
Yet all heaven’s gifts being heaven’s due,
It makes the father less to rue.
At six months’ end she parted hence
With safety of her innocence;
Whose soul heaven’s Queen, whose name she bears,
In comfort of her mother’s tears,
Hath placed amongst her virgin train:
Where while that, severed, doth remain,
This grave partakes the fleshy birth;
Which cover lightly, gentle earth!