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Time
SONNET NO. 64 When I have seen by times fell hand defaced
The rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
When some 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 a death which cannot choose
But weep to have, that which it fears to lose.
Note the repetition of the following words, we find-when
I have seen, when I have seen, when I have seen, time, time.
4th Line. Mortal rage-fury of death.
Here Bacon is ruminating on time which in the course of
years destroys most things and he writes that he fears it may also destroy his literary work and his muse.
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