Could we forbear dispute, and practice love, We should agree as angels do above. Where love presides, not vice alone does find, No entrance there, hut virtues stay behind: Both faith, and hope, and all the meaner train, Of mortal virtues, at the door remain. Love only enters as a native there, For born in heav'n, it does but sojourn here.

Edmund Waller

Categorized in : Doors Practice Angel

Vexed sailors cursed the rain, for which poor shepherds prayed in vain.

Edmund Waller

shepherds sailor rain

The lark that shuns on lofty boughs to build, Her humble nest, lies silent in the field.

Edmund Waller

larks humble lying

Tea does our fancy aid, Repress those vapours which the head invade And keeps that palace of the soul serene.

Edmund Waller

soul doe tea

Illustrious acts high raptures do infuse, And every conqueror creates a muse.

Edmund Waller

conqueror rapture muse

Poets lose half the praise they should have got, Could it be known what they discreetly blot.

Edmund Waller

improvement half should-have

All things but one you can restore; the heart you get returns no more.

Edmund Waller

return all-things heart

Stronger by weakness, wiser men become.

Edmund Waller

stronger weakness men

Fade, flowers, fade! Nature will have it so; 'tis but what we in our autumn do.

Edmund Waller

fades autumn flower

When religion doth with virtue join, it makes a hero like an angel shine.

Edmund Waller

angel shining hero

To love is to believe, to hope, to know;

Edmund Waller

love-is life believe

In other things the knowing artist may Judge better than the people; but a play, (Made for delight, and for no other use) If you approve it not, has no excuse.

Edmund Waller

knowing artist play

If its length be not considered a merit, it hath no other.

Edmund Waller

merit entertainment art

All human things Of dearest value hang on slender strings.

Edmund Waller

slender strings humans

Give us enough but with a sparing hand.

Edmund Waller

enough giving hands

So must the writer, whose productions should Take with the vulgar, be of vulgar mould.

Edmund Waller

mould vulgar should

His love at once and dread instruct our thought; As man He suffer'd and as God He taught.

Edmund Waller

suffering fear men

Soft words, with nothing in them, make a song.

Edmund Waller

song

While we converse with her, we mark

Edmund Waller

dark want thinking

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.

Edmund Waller

envy together long

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.

Edmund Waller

good-night light lying