The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations/Church-monuments
¶ Church-monuments.
WHile that my soul repairs to her devotion,Here I intombe my flesh, that it betimesMay take acquaintance of this heap of dust;To which the blast of deaths incessant motion,Fed with the exhalation of our crimes,Drives all at last. Therefore I gladly trust
My bodie to this school, that it may learnTo spell his elements, and finde his birthWritten in dustie heraldrie and lines;Which dissolution sure doth best discern,Comparing dust with dust, and earth with earth.These laugh at Jeat, and Marble put for signes,
To sever the good fellowship of dust,And spoil the meeting. What shall point out them,When they shall bow, and kneel, and fall down flatTo kisse those heaps, which now they have in trust?Deare flesh, while I do pray, learn here thy stemmeAnd true descent; that when thou shalt grow fat,
And wanton in thy cravings, thou mayst know,That flesh is but the glasse, which holds the dustThat measures all our time; which also shallBe crumbled into dust. Mark here belowHow tame these ashes are, how free from lust,That thou mayst fit thy self against thy fall.