Epigram on Waller

By Thomas Middleton (1580–1627)

Edmund Waller was an English poet who was born on March 3, 1605, and lived in the time of the Civil War. A cousin of Hampden’s and a connection of Cromwell’s he sat in the Long Parliament and in the early days of the struggle was on the popular side, but he afterwards engaged in royalist plots and was exiled. Later on, owing, it was said, to Cromwell’s influence, his sentence was revoked and after the Restoration he resumed his political career and was a great favorite at the courts of Charles II. and James II.

VARIOUS his subjects, yet they jointly warm,

All spirit, life, and every line a charm;

Correct throughout, so exquisitely penned,

What he had finished, nothing else could mend.

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