Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MEN IMPROVE WITH THE YEARS by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Poet Analysis

First Line: I AM WORN OUT WITH DREAMS
Last Line: AMONG THE STREAMS.
Subject(s): AGING; MEN; REGRET;
I AM worn out with dreams;
A weather-worn, marble triton
Among the streams;
And all day long I look
Upon this lady's beauty
As though I had found in a book
A pictured beauty,
Pleased to have filled the eyes
Or the discerning ears,
Delighted to be but wise,
For men improve with the years;
And yet, and yet,
Is this my dream, or the truth?
O would that we had met
When I had my burning youth!
But I grow old among dreams,
A weather-worn, marble triton
Among the streams.



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