Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DIE AT 40!, by LILLIE BENDER ROONEY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DIE AT 40!, by                    
First Line: Age! You should not be living at this hour
Last Line: Commercial world no place for you appears.
Subject(s): Middle Age


Age! You should not be living at this hour,
Earth has no need of you; you are wreck
Upon the sea of life. Nothing can check
The greedy waves of circumstance which tower
Above your head, and through this greed, devour
All self-respect. You are a tiny speck
Of driftwood floating idly at the beck
And call of youth. Deprived of vital power
To set your course, you are thus forced to wait
In idle dreaming of your useful past.
You say you are not old? Ah, forty years
Is now a ripe old age. It is your fate
To thrill with life, yet know in all the vast
Commercial world no place for you appears.





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