I have old women's secrets now <br />That had those of the young; <br />Madge tells me what I dared not think <br />When my blood was strong, <br />And what had drowned a lover once <br />Sounds like an old song. <br /> <br />Though Margery is stricken dumb <br />If thrown in Madge's way, <br />We three make up a solitude; <br />For none alive to-day <br />Can know the stories that we know <br />Or say the things we say: <br /> <br />How such a man pleased women most <br />Of all that are gone, <br />How such a pair loved many years <br />And such a pair but one, <br />Stories of the bed of straw <br />Or the bed of down.<br /><br />William Butler Yeats<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-man-young-and-old-ix-the-secrets-of-the-old/
