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ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students

Sonnet 64: When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd

William Shakespeare·1564–1616
Lines:14Movement:English Renaissance
When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'dThe rich-proud cost of outworn buried age;When sometime lofty towers I see down-raz'd,And 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 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.