Aftermath: Sonnet LXIV

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