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