| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | 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, | 5 |
| 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, | 10 |
| 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. | | | | |
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