The death of our Ladie - by Robert Southwell

Weepe livinge thinges of life the mother dyes
The world doth loose the summ of all her blisse
The Quene of Earth the Empresse of the skyes
By maryes death mankind an orphan is
Lett nature weepe yea lett all graces mone [5]
Their glory grace and giftes dye all in one

It was no death to her but to her woe
By which her joyes beganne her greives did end
Death was to her a frende to us a foe
Life of whose lives did on her life depende [10]
Not pray of death but praise to death she was
Whose uglye shape seemd glorious in her face

Her face a heaven two planettes were her eyes
Whose gracious light did make our clearest day
But one such heaven there was and loe it dyes [15]
Deathes dark Eclipse hath dymmed every ray.
Sunne hide thy light, thy beames untymely shine
Trew light sith wee have lost we crave not thine.

[ l1]: Weep, all living things; the mother of life dies.

[l2] summ: the sum; the summit.

[l5]: mone: moan with grief, mourn.

[ll7-8]: It is not death that Mary suffers; it is the death of (the end of) her woe. Her death ends her 'greives' (sorrows) and leads her to the joy of life in Heaven.

[35] And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed. [Luke 2]

[l10]: One sense might be: 'Hers was the life of those whose lives did on her life depend.'  'Her life' may be herself or the life she bore within her and whom she bore unto the world.

[l11] pray: prey

[l15] loe: lo.

[l12]: There are attested cases of saints whose body suffered no putrefaction after death; who even seemed strangely beautiful in death. How fitting it is therefore that Our Lady's face would be gloriously and radiantly beautiful in death.

For a summary of what the Church has always held and taught on the subject of the Dormition and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, see: the  APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION OF POPE PIUS XII, MUNIFICENTISSIMUS DEUS. November 1, 1950