For other versions of this work, see Sonnet 64 (Shakespeare).
Sonnet
When I have seen by times fell hand defaced
The rich proud cost of outworn 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 watry main,
Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;
When I have seen such interchange of state,
Or state itself confounded to decay;10
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate—
That time will come and take my love away.
This thought is like a death, which cannot chuse
But weep to have what it so fears to lose.
Shakespeare