An Epitaph On My Dear And Ever Honoured Mother Mrs. Dorothy Dudley, Who Deceased Decemb. 27. 1643. And Of Her Age, 61. By Anne Bradstreet

Here lyes,
    A worthy Matron of unspotted life,
    A loving Mother and obedient wife,
    A friendly Neighbor, pitiful to poor,
    Whom oft she fed, and clothed with her store;
    To Servants wisely aweful, but yet kind,
    And as they did, so they reward did find:
    A true Instructer of her Family,
    The which she ordered with dexterity.
    The publick meetings ever did frequent,
    And in her Closet constant hours she spent;
    Religious in all her words and wayes,
    Preparing still for death, till end of dayes:
    Of all her Children, Children, liv’d to see,
    Then dying, left a blessed memory.