Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham

Go, Lovely Rose!

1 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.

2 Tell her that’s young,
    And shuns to have her graces spied,
  That hadst thou sprung
    In deserts, where no men abide,
    Thou must have uncommended died.

3 Small is the worth
    Of beauty from the light retired;
  Bid her come forth,
    Suffer herself to be desired,
    And not blush so to be admired.

4 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 sweet and fair!