Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WHEN I AM OLD, by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES Poet Analysis First Line: When I am old, and it is spring Last Line: Buried alive inside a stone. Alternate Author Name(s): Davies, W. H. Subject(s): Old Age | ||||||||
When I am old, and it is spring, And joy leaps dancing, wild and free, Clear out of every living thing, While I command no ecstasy; And to translate the songs of birds Will be beyond my power in words: When Time serves notice on my Muse To leave at last her lyric home, With no extension of her lease -- Then to the blackest pits I come, To see by day the stars' cold light, And in my coffin sleep at night. For when these little songs shall fail, These happy notes that to the world Are puny mole-hills, nothing more, That unto me are Alps of gold -- That toad's dark life must be my own, Buried alive inside a stone. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AT EIGHTY I CHANGE MY VIEW by DAVID IGNATOW FAWN'S FOSTER-MOTHER by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE DEER LAY DOWN THEIR BONES by ROBINSON JEFFERS OLD BLACK MEN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON A WINTER ODE TO THE OLD MEN OF LUMMUS PARK, / MIAMI, FLORIDA by DONALD JUSTICE AFTER A LINE BY JOHN PEALE BISHOP by DONALD JUSTICE TO HER BODY, AGAINST TIME by ROBERT KELLY SONG FROM A COUNTRY FAIR by LEONIE ADAMS A BIRD'S ANGER by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES |
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