| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Idea | | Sonnet 17. Stay, speedy Time! behold, before thou pass | | Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | [First printed in 1594 (No. 7), and in all later editions.]
To Time |
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STAY, speedy Time! behold, before thou pass | |
| From Age to Age, what thou hast sought to see! | |
| One in whom all the excellencies be, | |
| In whom Heaven looks itself as in a glass. | |
| Time! look thou too in this tralucent glass! | 5 |
| And thy youth past, in this pure mirror see! | |
| As the World’s Beauty in his infancy, | |
| What it was then; and thou, before it was. | |
| Pass on! and to posterity tell this! | |
| Yet see thou tell but truly, what hath been! | 10 |
| Say to our nephews, that thou once hast seen | |
| In perfect human shape, all Heavenly Bliss! | |
| And bid them mourn, nay more, despair with thee, | |
| (That she is gone) her like again to see! | | | |
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