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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BYRON by CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER TO A CAT by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE DE RERUM NATURA: BOOK 3. AGAINST THE FEAR OF DEATH by TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS THE PEN by GHALIB IBN RIBAH AL-HAJJAM THE CLOISTER OF THE FALLING SNOW by SYLVIA HORTENSE BLISS |