Shake-speares Sonnets, Never before Imprinted/Sonnet 64
For other versions of this work, see Sonnet 64 (Shakespeare).
64When I haue seene by times fell hand defacedThe rich proud cost of outworne buried age,When sometime loftie towers I see downe rased,And brasse eternall slaue to mortall rage.When I haue seene the hungry Ocean gaineAduantage on the Kingdome of the shoare,And the firme soile win of the watry maine,Increasing store with losse, and losse with store.When I haue seene such interchange of state,Or state it selfe confounded, to decay,Ruine hath taught me thus to ruminateThat Time will come and take my loue away.This thought is as a death which cannot chooseBut weepe to haue, that which it feares to loose.