Shakespeare's Sonnet 64

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 chooseBut weep to have, that which it fears to lose.

I have seen Time’s cruel hand ruin the costly splendor of ages long dead and buried. I have seen towers that once stood tall torn down. Even brass, meant to last forever, falls victim to human rage.
I have seen the hungry ocean gain ground along the shore. I have seen firm land win ground from the sea. Each gains what the other loses, and loses what the other gains.
I have seen these changes of fortune, and grand things themselves destroyed by decay. Such ruin has taught me to think about this: Time will come and take my love away.
This thought feels like death. It makes me weep over having what I am afraid to lose.