Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Edmund Waller. 16061687304. On a Girdle
THAT which her slender waist confined | |
Shall now my joyful temples bind; | |
No monarch but would give his crown | |
His arms might do what this has done. | |
It was my Heaven’s extremest sphere, | 5 |
The pale which held that lovely deer: | |
My joy, my grief, my hope, my love, | |
Did all within this circle move. | |
A narrow compass! and yet there | |
Dwelt all that ‘s good, and all that ‘s fair! | 10 |
Give me but what this ribband bound, | |
Take all the rest the sun goes round! |