Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.
Amoretti and EpithalamionSonnet LXIX. The famous warriors of antique world
Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)T
Used trophies to erect in stately wise;
In which they would the records have enroll’d
Of their great deeds and valorous emprize.
What trophy then shall I most fit devise,
In which I may record the memory
Of my love’s conquest, peerless beauty’s prize,
Adorn’d with honour, love, and chastity!
Even this verse, vow’d to eternity,
Shall be thereof immortal monument;
And tell her praise to all posterity,
That may admire such world’s rare wonderment;
The happy purchase of my glorious spoil,
Gotten at last with labour and long toil.