| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | Fair Is the Rose | | Anonymous |
| | | FAIR 1 is the rose, yet fades with heat or cold: | |
| Sweet are the violets, yet soon grow old; | |
| The lily’s white, yet in one day ’tis done; | |
| White is the snow, yet melts against the sun: | |
| So white, so sweet, was my fair mistress’ face, | 5 |
| Yet altered quite in one short hour’s space: | |
| So short-lived beauty a vain gloss doth borrow, | |
| Breathing delight to-day but none to-morrow. | |
| | | Note 1. From Orlando Gibbons’ First Set of Madrigals, 1612. [back] | | |
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