Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.
IdeaSonnet 13. Letters and lines, we see are soon defaced
Michael Drayton (15631631)[First printed in 1594 (No. 21), and in all later editions. ]
To the Shadow
To the Shadow
L
Metals do waste and fret with canker’s rust.
The diamond shall once consume to dust;
And freshest colours, with foul stains disgraced.
Paper and ink can paint but naked words.
To write with blood, of force offends the sight.
And if with tears, I find them all too light:
And sighs and signs, a silly hope afford:
O sweetest Shadow, how thou serv’st my turn!
Which still shalt be, as long as there is sun,
Nor whilst the world is, never shall be done;
Whilst moon shall shine, or any fire shall burn:
That everything whence shadow doth proceed,
May in his shadow, my Love’s story read.