Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OLD MAN, by PHILIP EDWARD THOMAS


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OLD MAN, by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Old man, or lad's-love, - in the name there's nothing
Alternate Author Name(s): Eastaway, Edward; Thomas, Edward
Subject(s): Old Age


Old Man, or Lads-Love, – in the name there's nothing
To one that knows not Lads-Love, or Old Man,
The hoar-green feathery herb, almost a tree,
Growing with rosemary and lavender.
Even to one that knows it well, the names
Half decorate, half perplex, the thing it is:
At least, what that is clings not to the names
In spite of time. Uncertain of itself,
The field half meets the sky, the air I breathe
Dies into autumn as the blacksnake glides
Faintly away. Soldier, scholar, horseman, he,
As 'twere all life's epitome in one,
With gentleness, austerity, and love,
Was not the more unlovely for gray hairs—
Sweetly had fought, and, though he thought the world
Best lost, also loved well laughing, as may
Be seen: the Kiddie Dance he thought divine,
And many a jig from the hedges he had woven.
They that begot him halted in their walk
When seventy years were told; his mother's eyes,
In which he had read himself his first sweet tales,
Were worn away with weeping; on his breast
His lately wedded wife sobbed like a child:
And on his daughter's face his age fell down—
Full many a morning had he seen the herons
Standing as usually on the pool;
But now they lifted up their wings to go.
A ghostly friend, taciturn, tall, and gray,
That in his life's days used to share with him
As many a jest, with him would pace the field,
Sometimes arm in arm, but never spoke of heaven,
Nor named the name of Christ, but laughed instead,
And shared a creed that pleased him not too well,
Being one wherein he differed. So his life
Sank, and the tale were told, and he men's eyes
Forgot about his going, and men deemed
His tongue forever silenced, and his heart
Still, and his mind a blank among the books,
Chimneys and trees and hedges.




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