William Broome (1689 - 1745) was an English poet and translator. He was born in Cheshire and died in Bath. He became rector of Sturston in Suffolk, and later Pulham in Norfolk and Eye in Suffolk.

Broome worked on translations of the Iliad and the Odes of Anacreon. He also assisted Alexander Pope in translating the Odyssey.

THE ROSEBUD

by: William Broome

QUEEN of fragrance, lovely Rose,
The beauties of thy leaves disclose!
--But thou, fair Nymph, thyself survey
In this sweet offspring of a day.
That miracle of face must fail,
Thy charms are sweet, but charms are frail:
Swift as the short-lived flower they fly,
At morn they bloom, at evening die:
Though Sickness yet a while forbears,
Yet Time destroys what Sickness spares:
Now Helen lives alone in fame,
And Cleopatra's but a name:
Time must indent that heavenly brow,
And thou must be what they are now.

TO A LADY OF THIRTY

by: William Broome

NO more let youth its beauty boast,
S---n at thirty reigns a toast,
And, like the Sun as he declines,
More mildly, but more sweetly shines.
The hand of Time alone disarms
Her face of its superfluous charms:
But adds, for every grace resign'd,
A thousand to adorn her mind.
Youth was her too inflaming time;
This, her more habitable clime:
How must she then each heart engage,
Who blooms like youth, is wise in age!
Thus the rich orange-trees produce
At once both ornament, and use:
Here opening blossoms we behold,
There fragrant orbs of ripen'd gold.