THE SONNETS by William Shakespeare (64)

LXIV

    When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd The rich-proud cost of outworn buried age； When sometime lofty towers I see down-raz'd, And brass¹ eternal slave to mortal rage； When I have seen the hungry ocean gain Advantage on the kingdom of the shore, And the firm soil win of the watery² main, Increasing store with loss, and loss with store； When I have seen such interchange of state, Or state itself confounded, to decay； Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate—— That Time will come and take my love away. This thought is as a death which cannot choose But weep to have, that which it fears to lose.