The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer

Epitaph: Being Part of an Inscription Designed for a Monument Erected by a Gentleman to the Memory of His Lady

Farewell, my best beloved! whose heavenly mind
Genius with virtue, strength with softness join’d;
Devotion, undebased by pride or art,
With meek simplicity, and joy of heart:
Though sprightly, gentle; though polite, sincere;
And only of thyself a judge severe:
Unblamed, unequall’d in each sphere of life,
The tenderest daughter, sister, parent, wife.
In thee, their patroness the afflicted lost;
Thy friends their pattern, ornament, and boast;
And I—but ah, can words my loss declare,
Or paint the extremes of transport and despair!
O thou, beyond what verse or speech can tell—
My guide, my friend, my best beloved, farewell!