Shakespear
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 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," quod 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 you glorious name;
Where, whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew."
- * -
Do not ask for whom the bell tolls.
- * -
But came the waves and washed it away;
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and 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," quod 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 you glorious name;
Where, whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew."
- * -
Do not ask for whom the bell tolls.
- * -