A Prayer for Old Age

A Prayer for Old Age

Original Text

Yeats, William Butler. W. B. Yeats: Selected Poetry: 175-176. Ed. by A. Norman Jeffares. London: Macmillan, 1968.

1God guard me from those thoughts men think
2In the mind alone;
3He that sings a lasting song
4Thinks in a marrow-bone;
5From all that makes a wise old man
6That can be praised of all;
7O what am I that I should not seem
8For the song's sake a fool?
9I pray--for fashion's word is out
10And prayer comes round again --
11That I may seem, though I die old,
12A foolish, passionate man.
Publication Start Year
1935
Publication Notes

A Full Moon in March, 1935.

RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire, assisted by Ana Berdinskikh
RPO Edition
2009
Rhyme
Form