Edmund Waller on 10/10/10, Or Maybe—Let’s Face It—10/10/40

The soul’s dark cottage, battered and decayed,
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made;
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become,
As they draw near to their eternal home.
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view,
That stand upon the threshold of the new.

—Edmund Waller (1606–1687)