I HEARD an old man say today: <br />'A young man gives me orders now,' <br />A beardless youth gets better pay <br />And tells me what to do and how; <br />While I have toiled for forty years, <br />A stripling enters in the race <br />And with a single bound appears <br />And eagerly usurps my place. <br /> <br />'I've seen them shake their heads at me, <br />And I have often heard them sigh <br />As they my faltering hand would see: <br />'The times, alas, have passed him by, <br />He isn't what he used to be, <br />He's lost his grip,' and well I knew <br />hat youth at last had conquered me, <br />As youth old age will ever do. <br /> <br />'And now it's come, and I behold <br />Young fighters stripped to face the fray, <br />Exultant, clear of eye and bold, <br />Where I was wont to lead the way. <br />My nerve, they say, is gone from me, <br />I fear to do what youth will dare, <br />I shrink from opportunity, <br />My place is in an easy chair. <br /> <br />'This has been so since time began, <br />And to the end of time will be, <br />Brief is the working time of man, <br />Brief as the leaf upon the tree. <br />The young man comes, the old man goes, <br />Old eyes, old brains, old bodies fail, <br />Beyond our powers the struggle grows, <br />Old age drops out. So ends the tale.'<br /><br />Edgar Albert Guest<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-tragedy-of-age/
