Classic Poem

My sweet companion, and my gentle peer,
Why hast thou left me thus unkindly here,
Thy end for ever, and my life to moan;
Oh, thou hast left me all alone!
Thy soul and body when Death's agony
Besieg'd around thy noble heart,
Did not with more reluctance part
Than I, my dearest Friend, do part from thee.

My dearest Friend, would I had died for thee!
Life and this world henceforth will tedious be.
Nor shall I know hereafter what to do
If once my griefs prove tedious too.
Silent and sad I walk about all day,
As sullen ghosts stalk speechless by,
Where their hid treasures lie;
Alas, my Treasure's gone, why do I stay?

Say, for you saw us, ye immortal lights,
How oft unweari'd have we spent the nights?
Till the Ledaean stars so fam'd for love,
Wonder'd at us from above.
We spent them not in toys, in lusts, or wine;
But search of deep philosophy,
Wit, Eloquence, and Poetry,
Arts which I lov'd, for they, my Friend, were thine.

Ye fields of Cambridge, our dear Cambridge, say,
Have ye not seen us walking every day?
Was there a tree about which did not know
The love betwixt us two?
Henceforth, ye gentle trees, for ever fade;
Or your sad branches thicker join,
And into darksome shades combine,
Dark as the grave wherein my Friend is laid.

Large was his Soul; as large a Soul as ere
Submitted to inform a body here,
High as the place 'twas shortly in Heaven to have,
But low, and humble as his grave.
So high that all the Virtues there did come
As to their chiefest seat
Conspicuous, and great;
So low that for me too it made a room.

So strong a wit did Nature to him frame,
As all things but his judgment overcame;
His judgment like the heav'nly moon did show,
Temp'ring that mighty sea below.
Oh had he lived in learning's world, what bound
Would have been able to control
His over-powering Soul?
We have lost in him arts that not yet are found.

But happy Thou, ta'en from this frantic age,
Where ignorance and hypocrisy does rage!
A fitter time for Heav'n no soul ere chose,
The place now only free from those
There 'mong the blest thou dost for ever shine,
And wheresoe'er thou casts thy view
Upon that white and radiant crew,
See'st not a soul cloth'd with more light than Thine.