TO MR. HENRY LAWES by EDMUND WALLER

[WHO HAD NEWLY SET A SONG OF MINE IN THE YEAR 1635]

VERSE makes heroic virtue live;
But you can life to verses give.
As when in open air we blow,
The breath, though strained, sounds flat and low;
But if a trumpet takes the blast,
It lifts it high and makes it last;
So in your airs our numbers dressed
Make a shrill sally from the breast
Of nymphs, who, singing what we penned,
Our passions to themselves commend;
While love, victorious with thy art,
Governs at once their voice and heart.

You, by the help of tune and time,
Can make that song which was but rhyme.
Noy pleading, no man doubts the cause,
Or questions verses set by Lawes.

As a church-window, thick with paint,
Lets in a light but dim and faint,
So others, with division, hide
The light of sense, the poet's pride;
But you alone may truly boast
That not a syllable is lolst:
The writer's and the setter's skill
At once the ravished ears do fill.
Let those which only warble long,
And gargle in their throats a song,
Content themselves with @3ut, re, me:@1
Let words and sense be set by thee.

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