Shakespeare's Sonnets: When I have seen by time's fell hand defaced

When I have seen by time's fell hand defacedThe rich proud cost of outworn buried age;When sometime lofty towers I see down razedAnd brass eternal slave to mortal rage;When I have seen the hungry ocean gainAdvantage 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 it self confounded to decay,Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminateThat 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.