Sonnet L. Let others sing of Knights and Palladins

Samuel Daniel (1562–1619)

LET others sing of Knights and Palladins,

In agèd accents, and untimely words!

Paint shadows, in imaginary lines!

Which well the reach of their high wits records:

But I must sing of Thee! and those fair eyes!

Authentic shall my verse, in time to come,

When yet the unborn shall say, “Lo, where she lies!

Whose beauty made him speak, that else was dumb!”

These are the arks, the trophies I erect,

That fortify thy name against old age;

And these, thy sacred virtues must protect

Against the dark, and Time’s consuming rage.

Though th’error of my youth, they shall discover;

Suffice they shew I lived, and was thy lover!