Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.
IdeaSonnet 44. Whilst thus my pen strives to eternize thee
Michael Drayton (15631631)[First printed in 1599 (No. 43), and in all later editions. ]
W
Age rules my lines with wrinkles in my face;
Where, in the Map of all my Misery,
Is modelled out the World of my disgrace:
Whilst in despite of tyrannizing Times,
M
Proudly thou scorn’st my world-outwearing rhymes,
And murder’st Virtue with thy coy disdain!
And though in youth, my youth untimely perish,
To keep Thee from oblivion and the grave;
Ensuing Ages yet my Rhymes shall cherish,
Where I entombed, my better part shall save;
And though this earthly body fade and die,
My Name shall mount upon Eternity!