Edmund Waller
Edmund Waller
Edmund Waller, FRSwas an English poet and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and 1679. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. He entered Parliament early and was at first an active member of the opposition. In 1631 he married a London heiress who died in 1634. Later he became a Royalist, and in 1643 was leader in a plot to seize London for Charles I. For this he was imprisoned,...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth3 March 1606
may pay satire
Lampoons, like squibs, may make a present blaze; but time and thunder pay respect to bays.
circles rounds
Circle are praised, not that abound, In largeness, but the exactly round.
soul guests doe
And as pale sickness does invade, Your frailer part, the breaches made, In that fair lodging still more clear, Make the bright guest, your soul, appear.
should-have half improvement
Poets lose half the praise they should have got, Could it be known what they discreetly blot.
dark thinking want
While we converse with her, we mark No want of day, nor think it dark.
hero angel shining
Seeming devotion does but gild a knave, That's neither faithful, honest, just, nor brave; But where religion does with virtue join, It makes a hero like an angel shine.
fear joy vex
The fear of God is freedom, joy, and peace; And makes all ills that vex us here to cease.
art entertainment merit
If its length be not considered a merit, it hath no other.
world admire retiring
Happy is she that from the world retires, and carries with her what the world admires.
wisdom book practice
With wisdom fraught; not such as books, but such as practice taught.
art war age
Ingenious to their ruin, every age improves the art and instruments of rage.
stronger virtue brass
Virtue's a stronger guard than brass.
blood flesh vices
But virtue too, as well as vice, is clad in flesh and blood.
hate never-change states
Gods, that never change their state, vary oft their love and hate.