Poem by Edmund Spenser

Amoretti 75. One day I wrote her name upon the strand

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 pray.
“Vayne man,” sayd she, “that doest in vaine assay
A mortall thing so to immortalize;
For I my selve shall lyke to this decay,
And eke my name bee wyped out lykewize.”
“Not so,” quod I; “let baser things devize
To dy in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
And in the hevens wryte your glorious name.
  Where, when as death shall all the world subdew,
  Our love shall live, and later life renew.”

1. Amoretti 5. Then was the faire Dodonian tree far seene
2. Amoretti 41. Is it her nature, or is it her will
3. Amoretti 77. Was it a dreame, or did I see it playne?
4. Amoretti 65. The doubt which ye misdeeme, fayre Love, is vaine
5. Amoretti 87. Since I have lackt the comfort of that light

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