Poem by William Lisle Bowles

In Age

And art thou he, now "fallen on evil days,"
And changed indeed! Yet what do this sunk cheek,
These thinner locks, and that calm forehead speak!
A spirit reckless of man's blame or praise,--
A spirit, when thine eyes to the noon's blaze
Their dark orbs roll in vain, in suffering meek,
As in the sight of God intent to seek,
Mid solitude or age, or through the ways
Of hard adversity, the approving look
Of its great Master; whilst the conscious pride
Of wisdom, patient and content to brook
All ills to that sole Master's task applied,
Shall show before high heaven the unaltered mind,
Milton, though thou art poor, and old, and blind! 

1. Sonnet 1. As slow I climb the cliff's ascending side
2. Sonnet 14. On a Distant View of England
3. Sonnet 7. At a Village in Scotland
4. Sonnet 11. Written at Ostend
5. Greenwich Hospital

Edith Nesbit In Age ("THE wine of life was rough and new")

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