The Rose
The Refusal of Worldly Allure
The speaker firmly declines to indulge in worldly pleasures, recognizing them as deceptive and having already renounced his claim.
Don't press me to take more pleasure in this world of sugared lies, or to use a larger measure than my strict, yet welcome size.1 First, there's no pleasure here: there are colored griefs, it's true—blushing woes that look as clear as if they had beauty to spare.2 Or if there are such deceits— such delights, I meant to say— there are no such things for me, who have given my claim away.3
The Rose as a Gentle Answer
The speaker offers a rose as his answer, reflecting on its beauty and sweetness that also purges, revealing enmity and teaching forbearance, and ultimately biting at the close.
But I won't much oppose what you now advise: only take this gentle rose, and my answer lies in it. What is more beautiful than a rose?4 What is sweeter? Yet it purges.5 Purgings expose enmity; enmity calls for forbearance. If everything that worldly people prize is gathered into a rose, it lies there sweetly enough—but it bites in the end.6
The Judgment and Choice
The rose judges worldly joys as a scourge that produces repentance, a purge, but the speaker chooses health over medicine, thus his fair refusal is embodied in the rose.
So this flower judges and sentences worldly joys to be a scourge: for they all produce repentance, and repentance is a purge. But I choose health, not medicine. Only, though I oppose you, say that I fairly refuse, for my answer is a rose.
Read the original English
Presse me not to take more pleasure In this world of sugred lies, And to use a larger measure Then my strict, yet welcome size.
First, there is no pleasure here: Colour'd griefs indeed there are, Blushing woes, that look as cleare As if they could beautie spare.
Or if such deceits there be, Such delights I meant to say; There are no such things to me, Who have pass'd my right away.
But I will not much oppose Unto what you now advise: Onely take this gentle rose, And therein my answer lies.
What is fairer then a rose? What is sweeter? yet it purgeth. Purgings enmitie disclose, Enmitie forbearance urgeth.
If then all that worldlings prize Be contracted to a rose; Sweetly there indeed it lies, But it biteth in the close.
So this flow'r doth judge and sentence Worldly joyes to be a scourge: For they all produce repentance, And repentance is a purge.
But I health, not physick choose: Onely though I you oppose, Say that fairly I refuse, For my answer is a rose.
Notes
- 1 ↩Early modern 'Then' is comparative 'than' (not temporal 'then'); 'sugred' is modernized as 'sugared' (sweetened / deceptively sweet).
- 2 ↩Herbert's Colour'd means painted or dressed-up, not merely tinted: griefs made to look attractive. beautie spare keeps the Early Modern sense of having beauty to give away freely, not of withholding it.
- 3 ↩Early modern legal/idiomatic sense: to transfer or surrender one's right/claim. Rendered as 'given my claim away' to keep the renunciation force without archaic 'passed my right away'.
- 4 ↩Source 'then' modernized to comparative 'than' (Early Modern spelling/usage).
- 5 ↩'Purgeth' kept as medicinal/moral purging (the rose's cleansing property), not mere cleaning.
- 6 ↩Herbert's 'close' works as both 'at the end' and 'in the enclosed heart of the rose' (where the thorn bites). Rendered as 'at the close' to keep that double edge without archaic diction.
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