When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced <br />The rich-proud cost of outworn buried age; <br />When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed <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 watery main, <br />Increasing store with loss, and loss with store; <br />When I have seen such interchange of state, <br />Or state it self 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-64-when-i-have-seen-by-time-s-fell-hand-d/
