When I have seen by Time's fell hand
defaced
The rich proud cost of out-worn buried
age;
When sometime lofty towers I see
down-razed,
And brass 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 watery 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.
W. SHAKESPEARE.
