 | Marah |  |
41
EXPERIENTIA DOCET?
1
Vain is the experience of the pastTo guide their steps who rove,
By ways each different from the last,
The labyrinths of Love!
2
For no new movements of the heartReiterate the old,
Nor has their tale its counterpart
In those by Memory told.
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3
The records of the pilgrimageOf passion are impress'd
Each on the renovated page
Of a blanch'd palimpsest.
4
To mock the faith that lovers placeIn life's acquir'd love-lore,
New lessons, latest learn'd, efface
Old teachings taught before.
5
And we ourselves within us bear,Tho'to ourselves unknown,
New lives, that with new longings wear,
New features of their own.
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6
Thus every love is, of its kind,A first love and a last;
And every time we love, we find
That love has had no past.
| Marah | |