The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner, W.B Yeats

                           The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner

The poem, 'The Lamentation of the old pensioner' was composed by an Irish poet and dramatis, W.B Yeasts. The speaker of this poem is a retired old man who expresses his feelings of sadness and disappointment for having the beauty and youth robbed by the tyranny of the time.

     In the first stanza, the speaker compares his energetic and eventful youth his lonely, passive old age. In his youth, eh used to spend his time in the company of his friends talking about love and politics, but now he is alone and is taking shelter from rain under a broken tree.

                  In the second stanza, the speaker compares himself with the young boys. The young boys are involved in useful activities, like making weapons for conspiracy and expressing their anger at human tyranny. But the speaker seems to be much wiser and more experienced and has something else to concentrate on. He  contemplates on the tyranny of time for changing him into an old man.

    In the third stanza, the speaker gets even more agonized  to know that nota single woman llooks at him now. However, he still cherishes he memories of being in love with beautiful woman in his youth. Finally, he regards time as responsible for bringing all these changes in his life and expresses his feelings of anger wishing to spit into the face of time.

Questions:

1.      Explain the title of poem.

Ans-   'The Lamentation of the Old pensioner' is the revised version of W.B Yeasts earlier poem, ' The Old Pensioner". The title seems to be more significance than the earlier one because it suggests what and whom the poem is all about. 'Lamentation' means an expression of sadness and disappointment, whereas 'Pensioner' means a  person who has got retirement from his active life. In this poem are tired old man is expressing his feelings of sadness and disappointment for loosing the beauty and youth of his life. So, the title of poem is quite appropriate.

 2.   Summarize the poem in one sentence.

The poem "The Lamentation of The Old Pensioner" is all about the feelings of regret, grief and disappointment expressed by a retire old man who finds his charm, energy and beauty of his youth robbed by the tyranny of time.

      3.    What is the tone of the poem complacency, reignition, rage? Why?

           Tone refers to the attitude of a speaker towards the listeners or the subject matter though there is the tone of rage throughout the poem, close analysis of each stanza reveals different tones. In the first stanza, the speaker seems to be satisfied with his youth. So, this stanza has the tone of complacency. In the second stanza the speaker seems to be surrendering with the destructive power of time. So, the tone in this stanza is resignation. In the third stanza the speaker expresses his anger towards time for transforming him into an  old man. Therefore there is the tone of rage in this stanza.

 4. Why does the speaker want to spit into the face of time?

         The writer of this poem is greatly victimized by the tyranny of the time. In his youth , he used o be energetic, handsome and powerful. But time brought him to such a condition that now is no more mentally as well as physically energetic. Now no woman gets attracted towards him. Time has snatched all his confidence, prosperity, etc. So the speaker wants to spit into the face of time.

Essay:-                                   Youth and Age

              Youth and age are two contrary but complementary stages of human life. Youth is a blunder, whereas age is a regret. The tragedy of human base is the youth doesn’t know the consequences of an action and age doesn’t have physical power to do things. Everyone wants to remain young forever, nobody wants to be old but no one can avoid it.

     Youth is the period of many dreams and aspirations. Love, friendship and freedom are the precious gift for a youth in his or her full fledged youth dares to change every hell into heaven. It is the time to set the goal of ones life and accomplish it. Whatever achievements have been met in this world, they have been made by the people during their youth. Christopher Columbus, Nepolean Bonapart, Shankara Acharya,  Bibekanada, Bhagat Singh, John keats are few examples of people who contributed to their respective field during their youth.

        Old age on the other hand is the period of miseriness and memories on the one hand and wisdom and foresightness on the other. W.B Yeats compares old age with a tattered crown upon a stick. Old age is often compared with a night guest whom we have to welcome with a smile on our face. However the old people are the source of wisdom,,  inspiration and foresight.

     Both youth and age should be combined together in order to create a beautiful society. If the youths are guided by the wisdom of the aged people, they definitely reach to their destination. The aged people should be respected in every society because their mellowed (ripened) wisdom and enriched experiences make the society and the nation more forward.

  a.    What does the poem add to our knowledge of the old man (his character, attitude, circumstances)?

            The poem presents changing picture of old man including his character , attitude and circumstances. In his youth he used to be actively involve in love and politics. The poet used to involve in love and politics as he had colour of youth in skin and energy in his body. But now he has detached from love and politics. As he has neither beauty in skin nor energy in body. When we go upto third stanza each stanza reveal different attitude of old man. The poem as a whole shows change in attitude. Because first stanza reveals satisfied attitude of poet. In second stanza it shows the poet surrendering himself to tyranny of time. In third stanza it shows raged attitude towards time. So his attitude is also changing in every stanza as well as his circumstances are also changing. In his youth he used to be in company of his friends. But now he has been left alone by friends and beloved totally isolated and alien. Whole poem shows the contrasting picture of old man in youth and this age.

      b.    Explain the significance of the refrain in the poem.

           Refrain is sentence or clause that is repeated especially at the end of stanza in a poem. In this poem "The Lamentation of Old Pensioner", 'Time that has transfigured me' is repeated in each stanza which is the refrain. It has been repeated three times in the poem in order to signify transforming power of time.

       c.  Write a paragraph on An Old Man Remembers

             Old age is full of miseries of present and memories of past. A person in old age is physically weak and diseased to reflect on his past. So, the memories of past cross his mind not in managed order. But the things remember most is his childhood, college and adult (marital relation), occasion of being father, etc. He also remembers friends at school age , some of them might have passed away or alive . He also remembers is youth, teenage, face of friends. He also misses faces of beloved and gets energetic as the poet does in the poem, event of his marriage, having child. He remembers dreams and inspiration> he thinks about goal. If he had been able to achieve goal, he feels satisfied with his youth . If had left something undone or unfinished he has to lamentate as like in poem.