[Page 87]

An Inscription for the Monument of Diana Countess of Oxford and Elgin.

[Page 88]
1 Who from a Race of noble Heroes came,
2 And added Lustre to its antient Fame:
3 Round her the Virtues of the Cecils shone,
4 But with inferior Brightness to her own;
5 Which she refin'd to that sublime Degree,
6 The greatest Mortal cou'd not greater be.
7 Each Stage of Life peculiar Splendor had;
8 Her tender Years with Innocence were clad,
9 Maturer grown, whate'er was brave and good
10 In the Retinue of her Virtues stood:
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11 And at the final Period of her Breath,
12 She crown'd her Life with a propitious Death;
13 That no Occasion might be wanting here
14 To make her Virtues fam'd, or Joys sincere.
15 Two noble Lords her Genial Bed possest,
16 A Wife to both, the dearest, and the best.
17 Oxford submitted in one Year to Fate,
18 For whom her Passion was exceeding great.
19 To Elgin, full six Lustra were assign'd,
20 And him she lov'd with so intense a Mind,
21 That living, like a Father she obey'd,
22 Dying, as to a Son, left all she had.
23 When a Step-Mother, she soon soar'd above
24 The common Height, ev'n of Maternal Love.
25 She did her num'rous Family command
26 With such a tender Care, so wise a Hand,
27 She seem'd no otherwise a Mistress there
28 Than God-like Souls in Human Bodies are.
29 But when to all she had Example show'd,
30 How to be Great, and Humble, Chaste and Good,
31 Her Soul for Earth too excellent, too high,
32 Flew to its Peers, the Princes of the Sky.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): An Inscription for the Monument of Diana Countess of Oxford and Elgin.
Author: John Pomfret
Themes: virtue; death
Genres: heroic couplet; inscription

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Source edition

Pomfret, John, 1667-1702. Poems upon Several Occasions. By the Reverend Mr. John Pomfret [poems only]. The Sixth Edition, Corrected. With some Account Of his Life and Writings. To which are added, His Remains. London: printed for D. Brown without Temple Bar, J. Walthoe in the Temple Cloysters, A. Bettesworth, and E. Taylor, in Pater-Noster-Row, and J. Hooke in Fleetstreet, 1724, pp. 87-89. [12], 132, vi, 17p. (ESTC N21233)

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