Unto this grave let unkind parents turn,2
And touch these loving ashes in this urn.
All the dislike parents in children find
Shall3 vanish quite, and be of nature kind.
For in this tomb such pure love buried lies, 5
None perfect is, but what from hence doth rise.
- the Death of her Only Daughter] her only Daughter, which dyed. 1653
Whitaker argues that this poem “commemorate[s] Margaret’s sister Mary as an ideal of parental love”; see Mad Madge, 146. She notes, however, that this reading (and others she proposes in this Part) may not have been immediately evident to everyone: “These poems did not name their subjects—only those who knew Margaret’s family history well would identify her relations here” (146).
- turn,] come, 1653
- Shall] Will 1664, 1668