One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves, and washed it away: Agayne, I wrote it with a second hand; But came the tyde, and made my paynes his prey. Vayne man, say'd she, that doest in vayne assay A mortall thing so to immortalize; For I my selve shall like to this decay, And eke my name bee wiped out likewise. Not so, quod I; let baser things devize To dy in dust, but thou shall live by fame: My verse your vertues rare shall eternize, And in the heavens wryte your glorious name, Where, when as death shall all the world subdew, Our love shall live, and later life renew. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN TENEBRIS: 2 by THOMAS HARDY THE CONVERGENCE OF THE TWAIN; LINES ON LOSS OF THE TITANIC by THOMAS HARDY JACK AND JILL (1) by MOTHER GOOSE RACHEL by WILLIAM H. ARMSTRONG III HIS PRAYER TO PECUNIA by RICHARD BARNFIELD PRODIGAL by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN MARCH'S DAUGHTER by MAUDE PHILIPS BOARD |