1     Let others sing of knights and paladins,
 2     In agèd accents and untimely words,
 3     Paint shadows in imaginary lines
 4     Which well the reach of their high wits records;
 5     But I must sing of thee, and those fair eyes
 6     Authentic shall my verse in time to come,
 7     When yet th'unborn shall say, Lo, where she lies,
 8     Whose beauty made him speak that else was dumb!
 9     These are the arks, the trophies I erect,
10     That fortify thy name against old age;
11     And these thy sacred virtues must protect
12     Against the dark and time's consuming rage.
13        Though th'error of my youth in them appear,
14        Suffice, they show I lived and loved thee, dear.