And bears his blushing honors thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost!
And Milton beautifully uses the same simile:
Abortive as the first-born bloom of Spring,
Nipped with the lagging rear of Winter’s frost.
Herrick indulges in the following “fond imaginings” to blossoms:
Fair pledges of a fruitful tree,
Why do you fall so fast?
Your date is not so past
But you may stay yet here awhile