Sonnet 75

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 eek 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 heavens wryte your glorious name.

Where whenas death shall all the world subdew,

Our love shall live, and later life renew."