When we for age could neither read nor write, The subject made us able to indite; The soul with nobler resolutions decked, The body stooping, does herself erect. No mortal parts are requisite to raise Her that, unbodied, can her Maker praise. 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, battered and decayed, Lets in new light through chinks that time has 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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EPIGRAM ON MY WEDDING DAY: TO PENELOPE by GEORGE GORDON BYRON CINQUAIN: MOON-SHADOWS by ADELAIDE CRAPSEY THE SUN GOD by AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE A LECTURE UPON THE SHADOW by JOHN DONNE HOME THOUGHTS FROM EUROPE by HENRY VAN DYKE CRYING, 'THALASSUS!' by JOSEPH AUSLANDER |