Classic Poem

Letters and Lines we see are soone defaced,
Metals doe waste, and fret with Cankers Rust,
The Diamond shall once consume to Dust,
And freshest Colours with foule staynes disgraced:
Paper and Inke can paint but naked Words,
To write with Bloud, of force offends the Sight;
And if with Teares I find them all too light,
And Sighes and Signes a silly Hope affords,
O sweetest Shadow, how thou serv'st my turne!
Which still shalt be, as long as there is Sunne;
Nor whilst the World is, never shall be done,
Whilst Moone shall shine, or any Fire shall burne:
That ev'ry thing whence Shadow doth proceed,
May in his Shadow my Loves storie read.