| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | The Blushing Rose and Purple Flower | | By Philip Massinger (1583–1640) |
| | | THE BLUSHING rose and purple flower, | |
| Let grow too long, are soonest blasted! | |
| Dainty fruits, though sweet, will sour, | |
| And rot in ripeness, left untasted! | |
| Yet here is one more sweet than these: | 5 |
| The more you taste, the more She’ll please! | |
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| Beauty, though inclosed with ice, | |
| Is a shadow chaste as rare; | |
| Then, how much those sweets entice, | |
| That have issue full as fair! | 10 |
| Earth cannot yield from all her powers, | |
| One equal for Dame Venus’ bowers! | | | | |
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