Sonnet Lxiv

William Shakespeare

     When I have seen by Time's 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 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.

Index + Blog :

Poetry Archive Index | Blog : Poem of the Day