The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er; <br />So calm are we when passions are no more. <br />For then we know how vain it was to boast <br />Of fleeting things, so certain to be lost. <br />Clouds of affection from our younger eyes <br />Conceal that emptiness which age descries. <br /> <br />The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, <br />Lets in new light through chinks that Time hath made: <br />Stronger by weakness, wiser men become <br />As they draw near to their eternal home. <br />Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view <br />That stand upon the threshold of the new.<br /><br />Edmund Waller<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/old-age/
