Later Life: a Double Sonnet of Sonnets

Our teachers teach that one and one make two: / Later, Love rules that one and one make one: / Abstruse the problems! neither need we shun, / But skilfully to each should yield its due. / The narrower total seems to suit the few, / The wider total suits the common run; / Each obvious in its sphere like moon or sun; / Both provable by me, and both by you. / Befogged and witless, in a wordy maze / A groping stroll perhaps may do us good; / If cloyed we are with much we have understood, / If tired of half our dusty world and ways, / If sick of fasting, and if sick of food; -- / And how about these long still-lengthening days?