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
heart return all-things
All things but one you can restore; the heart you get returns no more.
hero angel shining
When religion doth with virtue join, it makes a hero like an angel shine.
kings light wish
His kingdom come!" For this we pray in vain, Unless He does in our affections reign. How fond it were to wish for such a King, And no obedience to his sceptre bring, Whose yoke is easy, and His burthen light; His service freedom, and His judgments right.
men promise tests
What use of oaths, of promise, or of test, where men regard no God but interest?
faults innocence innocent
Happy the innocent whose equal thoughts are free from anguish as they are from faults.
flower autumn fades
Fade, flowers, fade! Nature will have it so; 'tis but what we in our autumn do.
arrows mind resistance
Music so softens and disarms the mind That not an arrow does resistance find.
slender strings humans
All human things Of dearest value hang on slender strings.
hands giving enough
Give us enough but with a sparing hand.
men suffering taught
His love at once and dread instruct our thought; As man He suffer'd and as God He taught.
should mould vulgar
So must the writer, whose productions should Take with the vulgar, be of vulgar mould.
blessed voice listening
For all we know Of what the blessed do above Is, that they sing, and that they love. While I listen to thy Voice.
love sweet share
How small a part of time they share, That are so wondrous sweet and fair!
home dark men
The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made. Stronger by weakness, wiser men become As they draw near to their eternal home: Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view That stand upon the threshold of the new.