WHY should not old men be mad? <br />Some have known a likely lad <br />That had a sound fly-fisher's wrist <br />Turn to a drunken journalist; <br />A girl that knew all Dante once <br />Live to bear children to a dunce; <br />A Helen of social welfare dream, <br />Climb on a wagonette to scream. <br />Some think it a matter of course that chance <br />Should starve good men and bad advance, <br />That if their neighbours figured plain, <br />As though upon a lighted screen, <br />No single story would they find <br />Of an unbroken happy mind, <br />A finish worthy of the start. <br />Young men know nothing of this sort, <br />Observant old men know it well; <br />And when they know what old books tell <br />And that no better can be had, <br />Know why an old man should be mad.<br /><br />William Butler Yeats<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/why-should-not-old-men-be-mad/
