| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Amoretti and Epithalamion | | Sonnet LXXIX. Men call you fair, and you do credit it | | Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | | MEN call you fair, and you do credit it, | |
| For that yourself ye daily such do see: | |
| But the true fair, that is the gentle wit, | |
| And virtuous mind, is much more praised of me: | |
| For all the rest, however fair it be, | 5 |
| Shall turn to naught and lose that glorious hue; | |
| But only that is permanent and free | |
| From frail corruption, that doth flesh ensue. | |
| That is true beauty: that doth argue you | |
| To be divine, and born of heavenly seed;— | 10 |
| Deriv’d from that fair Spirit, from whom all true | |
| And perfect beauty did at first proceed: | |
| He only fair, and what He fair hath made; | |
| All other fair, like flowers, untimely fade. | | | | |
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