Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham

To a Lady, From Whom He Received a Silver Pen

1 Madam! intending to have tried
    The silver favour which you gave,
  In ink the shining point I dyed,
    And drench’d it in the sable wave;
  When, grieved to be so foully stain’d,
  On you it thus to me complain’d.

2 ‘Suppose you had deserved to take
    From her fair hand so fair a boon,
  Yet how deservèd I to make
    So ill a change, who ever won
  Immortal praise for what I wrote,
  Instructed by her noble thought?

3 ‘I, that expressed her commands
    To mighty lords, and princely dames,
  Always most welcome to their hands,
    Proud that I would record their names,
  Must now be taught an humble style,
  Some meaner beauty to beguile!’

4 So I, the wronged pen to please,
    Make it my humble thanks express
  Unto your ladyship, in these:
    And now ’tis forcèd to confess
  That your great self did ne’er indite,
  Nor that, to one more noble, write.