FAIREST, when I am gone, as now the glass Of Time is mark'd how long I have to stay, Let me entreat you, ere from hence I pass, Perhaps from you for evermore away, Think that no common love hath fir'd my breast, Nor base desire, but virtue truly known, Which I may love, and wish to have possess'd, Were you the high'st as fair'st of any one; 'Tis not your lovely eye enforcing flames, Nor beauteous red beneath a snowy skin, That so much binds me yours, or makes you fame's, As the pure light and beauty shrin'd within: Yet outward parts I must affect of duty, As for the smell we like the rose's beauty. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GOD by GABRIEL ROMANOVITCH DERZHAVIN SONG: TO CELIA by PHILOSTRATUS THE KING'S HAND by MUHAMMAD AL-MU'TAMID II SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE: 42 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING THE BELOVED STRANGER, SELECTIONS by WITTER BYNNER ON CLEADA'S HILL THE MOON IS BRIGHT by JEREMIAH JOSEPH CALLANAN |