Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William Broome. ?1745446. The Rosebud
QUEEN of fragrance, lovely Rose, | |
The beauties of thy leaves disclose! | |
—But thou, fair Nymph, thyself survey | |
In this sweet offspring of a day. | |
That miracle of face must fail, | 5 |
Thy charms are sweet, but charms are frail: | |
Swift as the short-lived flower they fly, | |
At morn they bloom, at evening die: | |
Though Sickness yet a while forbears, | |
Yet Time destroys what Sickness spares: | 10 |
Now Helen lives alone in fame, | |
And Cleopatra’s but a name: | |
Time must indent that heavenly brow, | |
And thou must be what they are now. |