1

            Love that’s loved from day to day
            Loves itself into decay:
            He that eats one daily fruit
            Shrivels hunger at the root.
            Daily pleasure grows a task;
            Daily smiles become a mask.
            Daily growth of unpruned strength
            Expands to feebleness at length.
            Daily increase thronging fast
            Must devour itself at last.
            Daily shining, even content,
            Would with itself grow discontent;
            And the Sun’s life witnesseth
            Daily dying is not death.
            So Love loved from day to day
            Loves itself into decay.

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I2

                                    2

            Love to daily uses wed
            Shall be sweetly perfected.
            Life by repetition grows
            Unto its appointed close:
            Day to day fulfils the year;
            Shall not Love by Love wax dear?
            All piles by repetition rise;
            Shall not then Loves’ edifice?
            Shall not Love too learn his writ,
            Like Wisdom, by repeating it?
            By the oft-repeated use
            All perfections gain their thews;
            And so, with daily uses wed,
            Love, too, shall be perfected.

                                             FRANCIS THOMPSON.

    132