Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden

Edmund Waller (1606–1687)

Song: ‘Go, lovely Rose’

GO, lovely Rose,

Tell her that wastes her time and me,

That now she knows

When I resemble her to thee

How sweet and fair she seems to be.

Tell her that ’s young,

And shuns to have her graces spied,

That had’st thou sprung

In deserts where no men abide,

Thou must have uncommended died.

Small is the worth

Of beauty from the light retired;

Bid her come forth,

Suffer herself to be desired,

And not blush so to be admired.

Then die, that she

The common fate of all things rare

May read in thee,

How small a part of time they share

Who are so wondrous sweet and fair.