One Day I Wrote Her Name versuri

One Day I Wrote Her Name lyrics by Anthony Quayle

One day I wrote her name upon the strand
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey
„Vain man,” said she, „that dost in vain assay
A mortal thing so to immortalize;
For I myself shall like to this decay
And eke my name be wiped out likewise.”
„Not so,” (quod I) „let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your vertues rare shall eternize
And in the heavens write your glorious name:
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue
Our love shall live, and later life renew.”