Sonnet XXVII. Fair Proud! now tell me, why should fair be proud

Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)

FAIR Proud! now tell me, why should fair be proud,

Sith all world’s glory is but dross unclean,

And in the shade of death itself shall shroud,

However now thereof ye little ween!

That goodly idol, now so gay beseen,

Shall doff her flesh’s borrow’d fair attire,

And be forgot as it had never been,

That many now much worship and admire!

Ne any then shall after it inquire,

Ne any mention shall thereof remain,

But what this verse, that never shall expire,

Shall to your purchase with her thankless pain!

Fair! be no longer proud of that shall perish;

But that, which shall you make immortal, cherish.