"Death"
By Katherine Philips

Transcription, correction, editorial commentary, and markup by Staff and Research Assistants at The University of Virginia, John O'Brien, Sara Brunstetter, Rachel Retica
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Sources

London : Printed by J.M. for H. Herringman, 1667This text is based on transcriptions created by the Early English Books Online Texts Creation Partnership, a library-based project directed by the University of Michigan and Oxford University. Their digital text was produced from the 1667 edition, published by Henry Herringman in London in 1667, three years after Philips's death, but with the collaboration of her late husband. We have also consulted The Collected Works of Katherine Philips, edited by Patrick Thomas (Essex: Stump Cross Books, 1990), which takes Philips's manuscript versions of her poems as its copytext. Annotations have been provided by faculty and students at the University of Virginia. For a full description of this object, see its ESTC entry.

Editorial Statements

Research informing these annotations draws on publicly-accessible resources, with links provided where possible. Annotations have also included common knowledge, defined as information that can be found in multiple reliable sources. If you notice an error in these annotations, please contact lic.open.anthology@gmail.com.

Original spelling and capitalization is retained, though the long s has been silently modernized and ligatured forms are not encoded.

Hyphenation has not been retained, except where necessary for the sense of the word.

Page breaks have been retained. Catchwords, signatures, and running headers have not. Where pages break in the middle of a word, the complete word has been indicated prior to the page beginning.

Materials have been transcribed from and checked against first editions, where possible. See the Sources section.

Citation

Philips, Katherine. "Death". Poems by the most deservedly admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, the matchless Orinda; to which is added Monsieur Corneille's Pompey & Horace, tragedies; with several other translations out of French, Printed by J.M. for H. Herringman, 1667 . Literature in Context: An Open Anthology. http://anthology.lib.virginia.edu/work/Philips/philips-death. Accessed: 2025-05-09T15:48:56.286Z

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TEST Audio
119 Death. 1How weak a Star doth rule MankindStarStarCompared to the universe's other stars, the sun was considered weak., 2Which owes its ruine to the same 3Causes which Nature had design'd 4To cherish and preserve the frame! 5As Commonwealths may be secure, 6And no remote Invasion dread; 7Yet may a sadder fall endure 8From Traitors in their bosom bred: 120 9So while we feel no violence, 10And on our active Health do trust, 11A secret hand doth snatch us hence, 12And tumbles us into the dust. 13Yet carelesly we run our race, 14As if we could Death's summons wave; 15And think not on the narrow spacenarrow_spacenarrow_space i.e. a limited lifespan; from the table, where life begins, to the grave, where it ends. 16Between a Table and a Grave. 17But since we cannot Death reprieve, 18Our Souls and Fame we ought to mind, 19For they our Bodies will survive; 20That goes beyond, this stays behind. 21If I be sure my Soul is safe, 22And that my Actions will provide 23My Tomb a nobler Epitaph,EpitaphEpitaphA tribute written in memory of a deceased person, often as an inscription on a tombstone (Oxford English Dictionary). 24Then that I onely liv'd and dy’d. 25So that in various accidentsAccidentsAccidentsEvents that happen by chance or without expectation. Sometimes with a negative connotation, as in being unfortunate or unforeseen (Oxford English Dictionary). 26I Conscience may and Honour keep; 27I with that ease and innocence 28Shall die, as Infants go to sleep.

Footnotes