When I was seventeen I heard
From each censorious tongue,
'I'd not do that if I were you;
You see you're rather young.'

Now that I number forty years,
I'm quite as often told
Of this or that I shouldn't do
Because I'm quite too old.

O carping world! If there's an age
Where youth and manhood keep
An equal poise, alas! I must
Have passed it in my sleep.