Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham

To a Lady in Retirement

1 Sees not my love how time resumes
    The glory which he lent these flowers?
  Though none should taste of their perfumes,
    Yet must they live but some few hours:
    Time what we forbear devours!

2 Had Helen, or the Egyptian Queen,1
    Been ne’er so thrifty of their graces,
  Those beauties must at length have been
    The spoil of age, which finds out faces
    In the most retirèd places.

3 Should some malignant planet bring
    A barren drought, or ceaseless shower,
  Upon the autumn or the spring,
    And spare us neither fruit nor flower;
    Winter would not stay an hour.

4 Could the resolve of love’s neglect
    Preserve you from the violation
  Of coming years, then more respect
    Were due to so divine a fashion,
    Nor would I indulge my passion.

Notes

1 ‘Egyptian Queen’: Cleopatra.