Waller

Edmund W. Waller (1606-1687) English poet, author of "Go, Lovely Rose," the poem set to music by Lawes, (which was the inspiration for Pound's poem "Envoi".)

     Song.

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 grace spy'd
     That hadst thou sprung
In desarts where no men abide,
     Thou must have uncommended dy'd.

     Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retir'd;
     Bid her come forth,
Suffer her self to be desir'd
     And not blush so to be admir'd.

     Then die that she,
The common fate of all things rare
     May read in thee
How small a part of time they share,
     That are so wondrous and sweet and fair.

--Waller, Edmund, Poems 1645, Scholar Press, 1971, pgs.48-49