A Selection from the Lyrical Poems of Robert Herrick

65. ALL THINGS DECAY AND DIE

     All things decay with time:  The forest sees
     The growth and down-fall of her aged trees;
     That timber tall, which three-score lustres stood
     The proud dictator of the state-like wood,
     I mean the sovereign of all plants, the oak,
     Droops, dies, and falls without the cleaver's stroke.