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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ON A GIRDLE by EDMUND WALLER

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: THAT WHICH HER SLENDER WAIST CONFINED
Last Line: TAKE ALL THE REST THE SUN GOES ROUND!
Subject(s): ADMIRATION; CLOTHING & DRESS; GIRDLES; LOVE;

THAT which her slender waist confined
Shall now my joyful temples bind;
No monarch but would give his crown,
His arms might do what this hath done.
It was my heaven's extremest sphere,
The pale which held that lovely deer:
My joy, my grief, my hope, my love,
Did all within this circle move.
A narrow compass! and yet there
Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair.
Give me but what this ribbon bound,
Take all the rest the sun goes round!



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