Affection shares the frailty of our fate,
When (like ourselves) 'tis old and out of date:
'Tis just all human loves their period have,
When friends are frail and dropping to the grave.
The Change.] This poem is almost less of a commonplace than any of King's, and the expression is vigorous. The nearest parallel I know to it is Crabbe's 'Natural Death of Love', and like that it has a curious, if not cheerful, ring of actuality. But the case is more unusual. The Spanish motto (rather dog-Spanish in original) means: 'The wise man changes consciously: the fool [or, rather, madman] perseveres.'
22 by the text] = 'formally'? as it were, 'by the card'. Or perhaps with direct reference to the motto.
To my Sister Anne King, who chid me in verse for being angry.
Dear Nan, I would not have thy counsel lost,