When I Do Count the Clock That Tells the Time ( William Shakespeare )

When I do count the clock that tells the time,

And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;

When I behold the violet past prime,

And sable curls all silver’d over with white;

When lofty trees I see barren of leaves

Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,

And summer’s green all girded up in sheaves

Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,

Then of thy beauty do I question make,

That thou among the wastes of time must go,

Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake

And die as fast as they see others grow;

    And nothing ‘gain-st Time’s scythe can make defense

    Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence. 

By

( William Shakespeare )