| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | The Rose | | By William Browne (c. 1590–c. 1645) |
| | | A ROSE, as fair as ever saw the North, | |
| Grew in a little garden all alone; | |
| A sweeter flower did Nature ne’er put forth, | |
| Nor fairer garden yet was never known: | |
| The maidens danced about it morn and noon, | 5 |
| And learnèd bards of it their ditties made; | |
| The nimble fairies by the pale-faced moon | |
| Water’d the root and kiss’d her pretty shade. | |
| But well-a-day!—the gardener careless grew; | |
| The maids and fairies both were kept away, | 10 |
| And in a drought the caterpillars threw | |
| Themselves upon the bud and every spray. | |
| God shield the stock! If heaven send no supplies, | |
| The fairest blossom of the garden dies. | | | | |
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