Oh youth, how do I compare thy splendor
Shall I compare thee to a budding rose?
Full of fragrance and endless life exposed
Your extensive actions leave us tender
Infrequent are you the world’s defender
If thou could care for the earth and dispose
We fail to see what we have done and chose
We routinely act as earth’s offender

In the end we know that days are numbered
We should value and treasure thy grandeur
Like withered leaves upon a troubled stream
I sit on the shore and watch; like a dream
Time, they say, waits for nothing and no one
And youth is lost, as swift as it began