Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden
Edmund Waller (16061687)The Bud
L
Big with many a coming rose,
This early bud began to blush
And did but half itself disclose;
I plucked it, though no better grown,
And now you see how full ’tis blown.
With such a purple light they shone
As if they had been made of fire,
And spreading so, would flame anon.
All that was meant by air or sun,
To the young flower my breath has done.
What may the same informed of love,—
Of purest love and music too,—
When Flavia it aspires to move;
When that which lifeless buds persuades
To wax more soft, her youth invades?