| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Idea | | Sonnet 13. Letters and lines, we see are soon defaced | | Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | [First printed in 1594 (No. 21), and in all later editions.]
To the Shadow |
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LETTERS and lines, we see are soon defaced. | |
| 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. | 5 |
| 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, | 10 |
| 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. | | | |
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