Thenceforward drags a maimèd life?

The economy of Heaven is dark,

And wisest clerks have missed the mark

Why human buds, like this, should fall 40

More brief than fly ephemeral

That has his day; while shrivelled crones

Stiffen with age to stocks and stones;

And crabbèd use the conscience sears

In sinners of an hundred years. 45

—Mother’s prattle, mother’s kiss,