In poems about aging, readers will find various depictions of the aging process and what it means to come to terms with the fact that everyone’s time on the planet is limited. Depending on the poet, some of these poems are far more optimistic than others, describing old age as something worth looking forward to.
‘Childhood’ explores the transitory moment when a child becomes aware of the passing of time, and the process of growing old.
I used to think that grown-up people chose
To have stiff backs and wrinkles round their nose,
And veins like small fat snakes on either hand,
On purpose to be grand.
‘Carpe Diem’ by Robert Frost is a poem that encourages the reader to live in the present and comments on people’s tendency to focus on the past and the future instead.
Age saw two quiet children
Go loving by at twilight,
He knew not whether homeward,
Or outward from the village,
‘Grandfather’ offers a moving and memorable portrayal of a man who pushes back against his old age right up to the end.
They brought him in on a stretcher from the world,
Wounded but humorous; and he soon recovered.
Boiler-rooms, row upon row of gantries rolled
Away to reveal the landscape of a childhood
‘Indian Weavers’ explores the inevitability of death while celebrating the cycles of human existence and experience.
Weavers, weaving at break of day,
Why do you weave a garment so gay? . . .
Blue as the wing of a halcyon wild,
We weave the robes of a new-born child.
‘I Remember, I Remember’ by Thomas Hood is a poem dedicated to the nostalgic embrace of childhood memory. Hood idolizes his ‘childish ignorance’, painting his memories with beautiful colors and images.
I remember, I remember,
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn;
‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ is Dylan Thomas’s most famous work, penned in response to his father’s death. This powerful poem urges resistance against the inevitable nature of death, encapsulating Thomas’s rich imagery and universal themes.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
‘Loveliest of Trees’ by A. E. Housman is a joyful nature poem in which the speaker describes how powerful the image of cherry blossom trees is in his life. He takes a great deal of pleasure from looking at them.
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
‘What Now?’ by Gary Soto is a contemporary poem that speaks to the universal experience of aging and learning.
Where did the shooting stars go?
They flit across my childhood sky
vAnd by my teens I no longer looked upward—
My face instead peered through the windshield
‘In Memory of the Utah Stars’ captures the manner in which memories can provide us with both pleasure and pain.
Each of them must have terrified
his parents by being so big, obsessive
and exact so young, already gone
and leaving, like a big tipper,
‘Next Day’ by Randall Jarrell is a confessional poem with a conversational tone that articulates the complex emotions of aging and change.
Moving from Cheer to Joy, from Joy to All,
I take a box
And add it to my wild rice, my Cornish game hens.
‘Twas the old — road — through pain—’ by Emily Dickinson describes a woman’s path from life to death and her entrance into Heaven.
In Chambers bright —
Too out of sight — though —
For our hoarse Good Night —
To touch her Head!
’39’ is a poem in which the narrator looks back on his life while eagerly awaiting his fortieth birthday and the years that will follow.
I only woke this morning
To find the world is fair —
I'm going on for forty,
With scarcely one grey hair;
‘The Minuet’ by Mary Mapes Dodge alludes to the many changes that the passage of time presents. This is specially related to the way that one speaker’s grandmother has changed.
Grandma told me all about it,
Told me so I couldn’t doubt it,
How she danced—my Grandma danced!—
Long ago
Frost’s ‘What Fifty Said’ is a reflection on youth and age’s lessons: learning past and future while creating one’s own identity.
When I was young my teachers were the old.
I gave up fire for form till I was cold.
I suffered like a metal being cast.
I went to school to age to learn the past.
‘A Quoi Bon Dire’ by Charlotte Mew, explores the process of aging and deals with topics such as loss and death. Here’s a complete analysis.
Seventeen years ago you said
Something that sounded like Good-bye;
And everybody thinks that you are dead,
But I.
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