In this tiny epitaph, Robert Herrick speaks directly to his dead sister-in-law. First, he tells her—and perhaps himself—that he has properly performed all the rites and prayers owed to the deceased. That duty done, he shifts to raw feeling: his love must now find voice through grief, because his sorrow is the only way he can still speak to her. Still, he clings to a quiet hope. In the phrase “Wherein thou liv'st for ever,” he suggests she has entered a kind of eternal life, either in heaven or in his memory. The final words “Dear, farewell” land with a resigned tenderness—the ache of letting go, yet refusing to sever the bond entirely. The whole poem feels like a whispered goodbye at a graveside, brief and intimate, heavy with love and the weight of ritual completed.
UPON HIS SISTER-IN-LAW, MISTRESS ELIZABETHHERRICK — Summary
First, for effusions due unto the dead, My solemn vows have here accomplished; Next, how I love thee, that my grief must tell, Wherein thou liv'st for ever.--Dear, farewell!