| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | A Rose | | By Sir Richard Fanshawe (1608–1666) |
| | | BLOWN in the morning, thou shalt fade ere noon. | |
| What boots a life which in such haste forsakes thee? | |
| Thou’rt wondrous frolic, being to die so soon, | |
| And passing proud a little colour makes thee. | |
| If thee thy brittle beauty so deceives, | 5 |
| Know then the thing that swells thee is thy bane; | |
| For the same beauty doth, in bloody leaves, | |
| The sentence of thy early death contain. | |
| Some clown’s coarse lungs will poison thy sweet flower, | |
| If by the careless plough thou shalt be torn; | 10 |
| And many Herods lie in wait each hour | |
| To murder thee as soon as thou art born— | |
| Nay, force thy bud to blow—their tyrant breath | |
| Anticipating life, to hasten death! | | | | |
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