Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham

Long and Short Life

Circles are praised, not that abound
In largeness, but th’exactly round:
So life we praise that does excel
Not in much time, but acting well.

Translated Out of Spanish

Though we may seem importunate,
  While your compassion we implore;
They whom you make too fortunate,
  May with presumption vex you more.

Translated Out of French

Fade, flowers! fade, Nature will have it so;
’Tis but what we must in our autumn do!
And as your leaves lie quiet on the ground,
The loss alone by those that loved them found;
So in the grave shall we as quiet lie,
Miss’d by some few that loved our company;
But some so like to thorns and nettles live,
That none for them can, when they perish, grieve.