Sonnet 25
Praise and Beauty
- 1 Let those who are in favour with their stars
- 2 Of public honour and proud titles boast,
- 3 Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars
- 4 Unlook'd for joy in that I honour most.
- 5 Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread
- 6 But as the marigold at the sun's eye,
- 7 And in themselves their pride lies buried,
- 8 For at a frown they in their glory die.
- 9 The painful warrior famoused for fight,
- 10 After a thousand victories once foil'd,
- 11 Is from the book of honour razed quite,
- 12 And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd:
- 13 Then happy I, that love and am belov'd,
- 14 Where I may not remove nor be remov'd.