“O, that a man might know
The end of this day’s business, ere it come!”
But he is also stoic philosopher enough to check that prospective yearning, with the reflection,
“But it sufficeth that the day will end,
And then the end is known.”
Swift opens his Birthday Address to Stella with the assurance,
“This day, whate’er the fates decree,
Shall still be kept with joy by me:
This day, then, let us not be told,
That you are sick and I grown old;