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
battered dark draw eternal light men near time wiser
The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed,Lets in new light through chinks that time has made.Stronger by weakness, wiser men become,As they draw near to their eternal home.
men stronger weakness
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become.
men promise tests
What use of oaths, of promise, or of test, where men regard no God but interest?
men suffering taught
His love at once and dread instruct our thought; As man He suffer'd and as God He taught.
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.
stars men light
To man, that was in th' evening made, Stars gave the first delight; Admiring, in the gloomy shade, Those little drops of light.
carve lasting latin marble poet poets
Poets that lasting marble seek/ Must carve in Latin or in Greek.
aiming fear private
The fear of hell, or aiming to be blest, savors too much of private interest.
both english-poet threshold worlds
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, That stand upon the threshold of the new.
fancy keeps palace
Tea does our fancy aid, Repress those vapours which the head invade, And keeps that palace of the soul serene.
song
Soft words, with nothing in them, make a song.
angel doors practice
Could we forbear dispute, and practice love,We should agree as angels do above.Where love presides, not vice alone does findNo entrance there, hut virtues stay behind:Both faith, and hope, and all the meaner trainOf mortal virtues, at the door remain.Love only enters as a native there,For born in heav'n, it does but sojourn here.
envy long together
Poets may boast (as safely-vain) Their work shall with the world remain: Both bound together, live, or die, The verses and the prophecy. But who can hope his lines shou'd long Last, in a daily changing tongue? While they are new, envy prevails, And as that dies, our language fails.
good-night lying light
Since thou wouldst needs, bewitched with some ill charms, Be buried in those monumental arms: As we can wish, is, may that earth lie light Upon thy tender limbs, and so good night.