(These verses were made by Michaell Drayton Esquier Poett Lawreatt the Night before Hee Dyed in 1631)

So well I love thee, as without thee I

Love Nothing; if I might Choose, I'd rather die

Than be one day debarred thy company.

Since Beasts and plants do grow, and live and move

Beasts are those men, that such a life approve;

He only Lives, that Deadly is in Love.

The Corn that in the ground is sown first dies

And of one seed do many Ears arise;

Love this world's Corn, by dying Multiplies.

The seeds of Love first by thy eyes were thrown

Into a ground untill'd, a heart unknown

To bear such fruit, till by thy hands t'was sown.

Look, as your Looking glass by Chance may fall

Divide and break in many pieces small,

And yet shows forth the selfsame face in all,

Proportions, Features, Graces just the same

And in the smallest piece as well the name

Of Fairest one deserves as in the richest frame.

So all my Thoughts are pieces but of you

Which  put together makes a Glass so true

As I therein no other's face but yours can View.

(See Poem 17 for some details of Drayton's life, which lasted from 1563 to 1631.

The puzzling seventh line about sown corn dying before it grows and multiplies is explained by a belief recorded in the New Testament. "Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but, if it dies, it bears much fruit." 
(John12:24) )