Years steal
Fire from the mind, as vigor from the limb;
And life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim.
Childe Harold, Canto III. LORD BYRON.
For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees
The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time
Steals ere we can effect them.
All's Well that Ends Well, Act v. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
Strange! that a harp of thousand strings
Should keep in tune so long.
Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Bk. II. DR. I. WATTS.
Thus aged men, full loth and slow,
The vanities of life forego,
And count their youthful follies o'er,
Till Memory lends her light no more.
Rokeby, Canto V. SIR W. SCOTT.
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty;
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood;
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility;
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly.
As You Like, It. Act ii. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
But grant, the virtues of a temp'rate prime
Bless with an age exempt from scorn or crime;
An age that melts with unperceived decay,
And glides in modest innocence away.
Vanity of Human Wishes. DR. S. JOHNSON.
Who soweth good seed shall surely reap;
The year grows rich as it groweth old,
And life's latest sands are its sands of gold!
To the "Bouquet Club." J.C.R. DORR.
The spring, like youth, fresh blossoms doth produce,
But autumn makes them ripe and fit for use:
So Age a mature mellowness doth set
On the green promises of youthful heat.
Cato Major, Pt. IV. SIR J. DENHAM.
My May of life
Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf:
And that which should accompany old age,
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
Curses, not loud, but deep, mouth-honor, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
What is the worst of woes that wait on age?
What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow?
To view each loved one blotted from life's page,
And be alone on earth as I am now.
Childe Harold, Canto II. LORD BYRON.