Poems about growing old and regret?

scout59
Mon, 12 Oct 2015 15:49:00 +0000

See, I love poems about growing old and feisty - not old and sad!

Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses” is a good one, in this respect, especially the last lines (italics mine, of course):

'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.