Poetry Hacks

carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow, Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen

Here the poet begs time not to change the youthful beauty of his beloved's face. The verbs 'carving' and 'drawing' imply that time is a sort of artist; he begs time to leave the beloved as a 'pattern' (a human model, for artists to copy) so that people in future can measure their own looks against true perfection.

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