When we for age could neither read nor write,
The subject made us able to indite.
The soul, with nobler resolutions deckt,
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, batter’d and decay’d,
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.
(Edmund Waller)
More Poetry from Edmund Waller:
Edmund Waller Poems based on Topics: Passion, Age, Soul, Praise, Home, Affection, Body- The Story of Phobus and Daphne, Applied (Edmund Waller Poems)
- Of My Lady Isabella Playing on the Lute (Edmund Waller Poems)
- Go, lovely rose! (Edmund Waller Poems)
- To a Lady Singing a Song of His Composing (Edmund Waller Poems)
- Upon His Majesty's Happy Return (Edmund Waller Poems)
- The Battle of the Summer Islands : Canto 1 (Edmund Waller Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Soul Poems, Home Poems, Praise Poems, Age Poems, Body Poems, Passion Poems, Affection PoemsBased on Keywords: indite, resolutions, deckt, chinks, unbodied, descries, requisite