aefenglommung (aefenglommung) wrote,
aefenglommung
aefenglommung

Night thoughts

It's one of those nights when I can't sleep, but I feel like I'm going to drop if I try to get up.  Ugh.  And so, I remembered the opening lines of this poem by C.S. Lewis.  Reading it again, I find his description of aging apt, but his description of the eternal boyhood within his aging frame even more so.  I was thinking along just those lines while working out in my holler yesterday.

AS ONE OLDSTER TO ANOTHER

Well, yes the old bones ache.  There were easier
Beds thirty years back.  Sleep, then importunate,
     Now with reserve doles out her favours;
          Food disagrees; there are draughts in houses.

Headlong, the down night train rushes on with us,
Screams through the stations . . . how many more?  Is it
     Time soon to think of taking down one's
          Case from the rack?  Are we nearly there now?

Yet neither loss of friends, nor an emptying
Future, nor England tamed and the ruin of
     Long-builded hopes thus far have taught my
          Obstinate heart a sedate deportment.

Still beauty calls as once in the mazes of
Boyhood.  The bird-like soul quivers.  Into her
     Flash darts of unfulfill'd desire and
          Pierce with a bright, unabated anguish.

Armed thus with anguish, Joy met us even in
Youth -- who forgets?  This side of the terminus,
     Then, now, and always, thus, and only
          Thus, were the doors of delight set open.

-- C.S. Lewis
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