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

Edmund Waller (1606–1687)

The Bud

LATELY on yonder swelling bush

Big with many a coming rose,

This early bud began to blush

And did but half itself disclose;

I plucked it, though no better grown,

And now you see how full ’tis blown.

Still as I did the leaves inspire,

With such a purple light they shone

As if they had been made of fire,

And spreading so, would flame anon.

All that was meant by air or sun,

To the young flower my breath has done.

If our loose breath so much can do,

What may the same informed of love,—

Of purest love and music too,—

When Flavia it aspires to move;

When that which lifeless buds persuades

To wax more soft, her youth invades?