For many centuries, young men have been telling their sweethearts about ephemeral youth and passion which, like a candle, burns brightly but dies out slowly but surely. Edmund Waller's persona in the poem "Song" is such a young man. He sends a rose to his beloved to "Tell her that [she] wastes her time and [him] (2) by acting shy and staying out of sight. This young lover is trying to tell his paramour that their time is too short for such petty things. He is telling her to forget society and let her feelings lead the way. The speaker of this poem wants his mistress to understand this eagerness of his, and drop everything and come running to enjoy their momentary love.
             In the first stanza, the young lover is commanding a rose to go and deliver a message of the urgency of his love to his sweetheart. He commands the rose to tell her that she is wasting their precious youth by acting ignorant when she knows that he admires her. He "resembles her to [the rose]" (4), and discovers "How sweet and fair she seems to be" (5). He uses the rose as a symbol of her beauty. He compares her to the rose because roses are beautiful things that last only for a certain time. By this comparison, he wants her to see the evanescence of anything beautiful. This young lover wants his mistress to see her beauty and youth in a new way. He wants her to stop wasting time and give in to the beckoning call of love.
             In the second stanza, the speaker is commanding the rose to tell his paramour to throw off her robe of modesty and show off her beauty while she can. He understands that she is young "And shuns to have her graces spied" (7), but he wants the world to see her beauty and admire her for it. He wants to walk into a room with his beautiful mistress and see the men fighting for a glance at her and the women envying from afar. He wants poems written about her beauty and ballads sung about her virtue. Thus, he sends the lovely rose. He
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