Song: Go Lovely Rose
Song: Go Lovely Rose
Original Text
Edmund Waller, Poems (1645); facs.edn., Poems, 1645, together with poems from Bodleian MS Dond. 55 (Menston: Scolar Press, 1971). PR 3750 A1 1645 AB Robarts Library
1Go lovely rose,
2Tell her that wastes her time and me,
3That now she knows,
5How sweet and fair she seems to be.
6Tell her that's young,
7And shuns to have her graces spied,
8That hadst thou sprung
9In deserts, where no men abide,
10Thou must have uncommended died.
11Small is the worth
12Of beauty from the light retir'd:
13Bid her come forth,
14Suffer herself to be desir'd,
15And not blush so to be admir'd.
16Then die, that she
17The common fate of all things rare
18May read in thee;
19How small a part of time they share
20That are so wondrous sweet and fair.
Notes
4] resemble her to: compare her with. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1645
RPO poem Editors
N. J. Endicott
RPO Edition
2RP.1.445; RPO 1996-2000.
Rhyme