Sonnet LXIV

When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced	1
The rich proud cost of outworn buried age;	2
When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed	3
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;	4
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain	5
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,	6
And the firm soil win of the watery main,	7
Increasing store with loss and loss with store;	8
When I have seen such interchange of state,	9
Or state itself confounded to decay;	10
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate,	11
That Time will come and take my love away.	12
This thought is as a death, which cannot choose	13
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.	14