Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864)

WELCOME, old friend! These many years

Have we lived door by door:

The Fates have laid aside their shears

Perhaps for some few more.

I was indocile at an age

When better boys were taught,

But thou at length hath made me sage,

If I am sage in aught.

Little I know from other men,

Too little they from me,

But thou hast pointed well the pen

That writes these lines to thee.

Thanks for expelling Fear and Hope,

One vile, the other vain;

One’s scourge, the other’s telescope,

I shall not see again:

Rather what lies before my feet

My notice shall engage—

He who hath braved Youth’s dizzy heat

Dreads not the frost of Age.