University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The Poems of Edmund Waller

Edited by G. Thorn Drury
Waller, Edmund (1606-1687)

collapse section 
[section]
  
OF THE DANGER HIS MAJESTY [BEING PRINCE] ESCAPED IN THE ROAD AT SAINT ANDREWS.
  
TO THE QUEEN,
  
OF HIS MAJESTY'S RECEIVING THE NEWS OF THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM'S DEATH.
  
OF SALLE.
  
TO THE KING, ON HIS NAVY.
  
UPON HIS MAJESTY'S REPAIRING OF PAUL'S.
  
TO MR. HENRY LAWES,
  
THE COUNTRY TO MY LADY OF CARLISLE.
  
THE COUNTESS OF CARLISLE IN MOURNING.
  
IN ANSWER TO ONE WHO WRIT AGAINST A FAIR LADY.
  
OF HER CHAMBER.
  
TO PHYLLIS.
  
TO MR. GEORGE SANDYS,
  
UPON BEN JONSON.
  
TO MY LORD NORTHUMBERLAND,
  
TO MY LORD ADMIRAL,
  
TO THE QUEEN MOTHER OF FRANCE, UPON HER LANDING.
  
UPON THE DEATH OF MY LADY RICH.
  
THYRSIS, GALATEA.
  
ON MY LADY DOROTHY SIDNEY'S PICTURE.
  
TO VANDYCK.
  
AT PENSHURST.
  
TO MY LORD OF LEICESTER.
  
OF THE LADY WHO CAN SLEEP WHEN SHE PLEASES.
  
OF THE MISREPORT OF HER BEING PAINTED.
  
OF HER PASSING THROUGH A CROWD OF PEOPLE.
  
THE STORY OF PHŒBUS AND DAPHNE, APPLIED.
  
SONG.
  
TO THE SERVANT OF A FAIR LADY.
  
TO A VERY YOUNG LADY.
  
TO AMORET.
  
ON THE FRIENDSHIP BETWIXT TWO LADIES.
  
ON HER COMING TO LONDON.
  
AT PENSHURST.
collapse section 
THE BATTLE OF THE SUMMER ISLANDS.
 I. 
CANTO I.
 II. 
CANTO II.
 III. 
CANTO III.
  
WHEN HE WAS AT SEA.
  
TO MY LORD OF FALKLAND.
  
OF THE QUEEN.
  
THE APOLOGY OF SLEEP,
  
PUERPERIUM.
  
TO AMORET.
  
TO PHYLLIS.
  
À LA MALADE.
  
OF LOVE.
  
FOR DRINKING OF HEALTHS.
  
OF MY LADY ISABELLA,
  
OF MRS. ARDEN.
  
OF THE MARRIAGE OF THE DWARFS.
  
LOVE'S FAREWELL.
  
FROM A CHILD.
  
ON A GIRDLE.
  
THE FALL.
  
OF SYLVIA.
  
THE BUD.
  
ON THE DISCOVERY OF A LADY'S PAINTING.
  
OF LOVING AT FIRST SIGHT.
  
THE SELF-BANISHED.
  
TO A FRIEND,
  
TO ZELINDA.
  
TO A LADY SINGING A SONG OF HIS COMPOSING.
  
TO THE MUTABLE FAIR.
  
TO A LADY, FROM WHOM HE RECEIVED A SILVER PEN.
  
ON THE HEAD OF A STAG.
  
THE MISER'S SPEECH.
  
TO CHLORIS.
  
TO A LADY IN A GARDEN.
  
CHLORIS AND HYLAS.
  
IN ANSWER OF SIR JOHN SUCKLING'S VERSES.
  
AN APOLOGY FOR HAVING LOVED BEFORE.
  
ON A BREDE OF DIVERS COLOURS,
  
TO CHLORIS.
  
SONG.
  
SONG.
  
TO FLAVIA.
  
BEHOLD THE BRAND OF BEAUTY TOSSED!
  
WHILE I LISTEN TO THY VOICE.
  
GO, LOVELY ROSE!
  
UNDER A LADY'S PICTURE.
  
WRITTEN IN MY LADY SPEKE'S SINGING-BOOK.
  
OF A LADY WHO WRIT IN PRAISE OF MIRA.
  
TO ONE MARRIED TO AN OLD MAN.
  
AN EPIGRAM ON A PAINTED LADY WITH ILL TEETH.
  
ON MR. JOHN FLETCHER'S PLAYS.
  
VERSES TO DR. GEORGE ROGERS,
  
TO MY LADY MORTON, ON NEW-YEAR'S DAY, 1650.
  
TO SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT,
  
A PANEGYRIC TO MY LORD PROTECTOR,
  
TO MY WORTHY FRIEND, MR. WASE.
  
TO HIS WORTHY FRIEND, MASTER EVELYN,
  
OF A WAR WITH SPAIN, AND A FIGHT AT SEA.
  
TO HIS WORTHY FRIEND, SIR THOS. HIGGONS,
  
PART OF THE FOURTH BOOK OF VIRGIL, TRANSLATED.
  
UPON THE LATE STORM, AND OF THE DEATH OF HIS HIGHNESS ENSUING THE SAME.
  
TO THE KING,
  
ON ST. JAMES'S PARK,
  
TO THE QUEEN, UPON HER MAJESTY'S BIRTHDAY,
  
TO A FAIR LADY, PLAYING WITH A SNAKE.
  
INSTRUCTIONS TO A PAINTER,
  
TO THE KING.
  
UPON HER MAJESTY'S NEW BUILDINGS AT SOMERSET HOUSE
  
EPITAPH TO BE WRITTEN UNDER THE LATIN INSCRIPTION UPON THE TOMB OF THE ONLY SON OF THE LORD ANDOVER.
  
TO MR. KILLIGREW,
  
EPIGRAM UPON THE GOLDEN MEDAL.
  
THE NIGHT-PIECE;
  
ON THE PICTURE OF A FAIR YOUTH,
  
OF A TREE CUT IN PAPER.
  
TO A LADY, FROM WHOM HE RECEIVED THE FOREGOING COPY WHICH FOR MANY YEARS HAD BEEN LOST.
  
OF ENGLISH VERSE.
  
TO THE DUCHESS,
  
TO THE DUCHESS OF ORLEANS,
  
TO A FRIEND OF THE AUTHOR,
  
OF HER ROYAL HIGHNESS, MOTHER TO THE PRINCE OF ORANGE;
  
ON THE STATUE OF KING CHARLES I.
  
EPITAPH ON COLONEL CHARLES CAVENDISH.
  
THE TRIPLE COMBAT.
  
UPON OUR LATE LOSS OF THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE.
  
OF THE LADY MARY, &c.
  
TO THE PRINCE OF ORANGE, 1677.
  
ON THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH'S EXPEDITION
  
UPON THE EARL OF ROSCOMMON'S TRANSLATION OF HORACE,
  
THESE VERSES WERE WRIT IN THE TASSO OF HER ROYAL HIGHNESS.
  
OF AN ELEGY MADE BY MRS. WHARTON ON THE EARL OF ROCHESTER.
  
TO MR. CREECH, ON HIS TRANSLATION OF “LUCRETIUS.”
  
SUNG BY MRS. KNIGHT, TO HER MAJESTY, ON HER BIRTHDAY.
  
WRITTEN ON A CARD THAT HER MAJESTY TORE AT OMBRE.
  
TRANSLATED OUT OF SPANISH.
  
OF HER MAJESTY, ON NEW-YEAR'S DAY, 1683.
  
OF TEA, COMMENDED BY HER MAJESTY.
  
PROLOGUE FOR THE LADY-ACTORS:
  
PROLOGUE TO THE “MAID'S TRAGEDY.”
  
EPILOGUE TO THE “MAID'S TRAGEDY.”
  
EPILOGUE TO THE “MAID'S TRAGEDY.”
  
OF THE INVASION AND DEFEAT OF THE TURKS, IN THE YEAR 1683.
  
A PRESAGE OF THE RUIN OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE.
  
TO HIS MAJESTY,
  
EPITAPH ON SIR GEORGE SPEKE.
  
EPITAPH ON HENRY DUNCH, ESQ.,
  
SONG.
  
TO MR. GRANVILLE (NOW LORD LANSDOWNE),
  
LONG AND SHORT LIFE.
  
TRANSLATED OUT OF FRENCH.
  
SOME VERSES OF AN IMPERFECT COPY, DESIGNED FOR A FRIEND, ON HIS TRANSLATION OF OVID'S “FASTI.”
  
PRIDE.
  
EPITAPH ON THE LADY SEDLEY.
  
EPITAPH UNFINISHED.
  
UPON A LADY'S FISHING WITH AN ANGLE.
  
ON MRS. HIGGONS.
collapse section 
DIVINE POEMS.
collapse section 
OF DIVINE LOVE.
 I. 
CANTO I.
 II. 
CANTO II.
 III. 
CANTO III.
 IV. 
CANTO IV.
 V. 
CANTO V.
 VI. 
CANTO VI.
  
[conclusion]
  
[conclusion]
collapse section 
OF DIVINE POESY.
 I. 
CANTO I.
 II. 
CANTO II.
  
OF THE PARAPHRASE ON THE LORD'S PRAYER,
  
SOME REFLECTIONS OF HIS UPON THE SEVERAL PETITIONS IN THE SAME PRAYER.
collapse section 
ON THE FEAR OF GOD.
 I. 
CANTO I.
 II. 
CANTO II.
  
OF THE LAST VERSES IN THE BOOK.

collapse section Collapse All | Expand All expand section
previous section The Poems of Edmund Waller
next section

UPON A LADY'S FISHING WITH AN ANGLE.

See where the fair Clorinda sits, and seems
Like new-born Venus risen from the streams;
In vain the beauties of the neighbouring field,
In vain the painted flowers' pride
With their faint colours strive to hide
That flower to which Flora herself would yield.
Each object's pleasant to the sight,
The streams, the meadows yield delight,
But nothing fair as her you can espy
Unless i' th' brook (her looking-glass) you chance to cast your eye.
See how she makes the trembling angle shake,
Touched by those hands that would make all men quake.
See how the numerous fishes of the brook
245

(For now the armour of their scales
Nothing against her charms prevails)
Willingly hang themselves upon her hook;
See how they crowd and thronging wait
Greedy to catch the proffered bait;
In her more bright and smoother hands content
Rather to die, than live in their own watery element.
With how composed a look and cheerful air,
(Calm as the stream and as the season fair)
With careful eyes she views the dancing float,
Longing to have it disappear,
That she its head may higher rear,
And make it swim i' th' air above the moat;
She sits as silent as the fish,
Seems burdened with no other wish,
So well she's masked under this fair pretence,
An infidel would swear she's made of perfect innocence.
But ah! Clorinda's is a cruel game,
As she with water sports, she sports with flame,
She innocently angles here, but then
Thousands of charming baits she lays,
A thousand other several ways;
Her beauteous eyes ensnare whole shoals of men,
Each golden hair's a fishing line,
Able to catch such hearts as mine,
And he that once views her bewitching eyes,
To her victorious charms (like me) must ever be a prize.
previous section The Poems of Edmund Waller
next section