Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Edmund Waller. 16061687306. 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 | 5 |
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. | 10 |
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view | |
That stand upon the threshold of the new. |