Romantic Poem by Edmund Spenser

One day I wrote her name upon the strandOne 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 assayA mortal thing so to immortalize!For I myself shall like to this decay,And eek my name be wiped out likewise.Not so (quoth I), let baser things deviseTo