Edmund Spenser — One Day I Wrote Her Name upon the Strand

                Sonnet LXXV from Amoretti One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washed it away: Again I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tide and made my pains his prey. Vain man (said she) that dost in vain assay A mortal thing so to immortalize; For I myself shall like to this decay, And eke my name be wiped out likewise. Not so, quoth I; let baser things devise To die in dust, but you shall live by fame; My verse your virtues rare shall eternize, And in the heavens write your glorious name:   Where, when as Death shall all the world subdue,   Our love shall live, and later life renew.