Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser
b'Spenser read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\\nhttp://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/\\nGiving voice to the poetry of the past.\\n\\n---------------------------------------------\\n\\n Sonnet 75 \\nby Edmund Spenser (1552 \\u2013 1599)\\n\\nOne day I wrote her name upon the strand, \\nBut came the waves and washed it away: \\nAgain I wrote it with a second hand, \\nBut came the tide, and made my pains his prey. \\nVain man, said she, that dost in vain assay \\nA mortal thing so to immortalize! \\nFor I myself shall like to this decay, \\nAnd eek my name be wiped out likewise. \\nNot so (quoth I), let baser things devise \\nTo die in dust, but you shall live by fame: \\nMy verse your virtues rare shall eternize, \\nAnd in the heavens write your glorious name; \\nWhere, whenas death shall all the world subdue, \\nOur love shall live, and later life renew.'