Go Lovely Rose

by Edmund Waller

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.

     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.

   Small is the worth
   Of beauty from the light retir'd:
   Bid her come forth,
   Suffer herself to be desir'd,
   And not blush so to be admir'd.

   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.