When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd <br />The rich proud cost of outworn buried age; <br />When sometime lofty towers I see down-ras'd <br />And brass eternal slave to mortal rage; <br />When I have seen the hungry ocean gain <br />Advantage on the kingdom of the shore, <br />And the firm soil win of the wat'ry main, <br />Increasing store with loss and loss with store; <br />When I have seen such interchange of state, <br />Or state itself confounded to decay; <br />Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate, <br />That Time will come and take my love away. <br />This thought is as a death, which cannot choose <br />But weep to have that which it fears to lose.<br /><br />William Shakespeare<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-lxiv-when-i-have-seen-by-time-s-fell-hand/
