Sonnet XLVI: Let others sing of knights and paladines

By Samuel Daniel

XLVI

    Let others sing of knights and paladines

   In aged accents and untimely words;

   Paint shadows in imaginary lines

   Which well the reach of their high wits records:

   But I must sing of thee, and those fair eyes

   Authentic shall my verse in time to come,

   When yet th' unborn shall say, "Lo where she lies

   Whose beauty made him speak that else was dumb."

   These are the arks, the trophies I erect,

  That fortify thy name against old age;

  And these thy sacred virtues must protect

  Against the dark, and time's consuming rage.

  Though th' error of my youth they shall discover,

  Suffice they show I liv'd and was thy lover.

NOTESForm: sonnet: ababcdcdefefgg 2. untimely words: words no longer used. 6. Authentic: authenticate. 9. arks: shrines.