Classic Poem

All you have been you can be in this hour,
My need will be my need for evermore.
Time cannot steal your excellence of power,
Nor stain the love that liveried you before,
If you shall but your wonted honour keep,
And daily meet me with quick truth of old,
And let nor change nor dark alloy nor sleep
Betray your former witness of its mould.

But if in other features you present
The woman that I loved, how should I make
Renewal daily of an old content
I knew for her whose covenant you break?
Though you yourself betrayed your elder pride.
I would not in your treason be allied.