1. When forty years are done, desire no more
Save a maid in her forties with a fate in store,

2. For he who thirties past did shun and soar
On them must add ten more to deathward bore.

3. Time of delight is plus to body's need;
And they are toil when power to joy recede.

4. The days thou askest of lost youth, indeed,
As though saying "Whither went the talisman?"

5. From life thou seekest what is past and fled,
And thou art tasked beyond what Fate hath sped.

6. The ill clings fast and is bemoaned and pled,
Though God of men, an He but willed, th' account would read.

7. The person passed, and eke the name is dead,
Not wholly dead who lives by deixis dread.