Poem by Edmund Waller

Old Age

The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er;
So calm are we when passions are no more.
For then we know how vain it was to boast
Of fleeting things, so certain to be lost.
Clouds of affection from our younger eyes
Conceal that emptiness which age descries.

The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Lets in new light through chinks that Time hath made:
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become
As they draw near to their eternal home.
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view
That stand upon the threshold of the new. 

1. The Self Banished
2. Of My Lady Isabella Playing on the Lute
3. To a Lady Singing a Song of His Composing
4. At Penshurst
5. To One Married to an Old Man

Arthur Symons Old Age ("It may be, when this city of the nine gates")

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