Why should not old men be mad?Some have known a likely ladThat had a sound fly-fisher's wristTurn to a drunken journalist;A girl that knew all Dante onceLive to bear children to a dunce;A Helen of social welfare dream,Climb on a wagonette to scream.Some think it a matter of course that chanceShould starve good men and bad advance,That if their neighbours figured plain,As though upon a lighted screen,No single story would they findOf an unbroken happy mind,A finish worthy of the start.Young men know nothing of this sort,Observant old men know it well;And when they know what old books tel
The poem reflects on the disillusionment that comes with age, particularly about the inconsistencies of life and the unpredictable fate of individuals. Yeats contrasts young men's naivete with the wisdom of older individuals who have seen how chance can derail even the most promising lives. He uses examples such as a promising young man who becomes a journalist and a learned girl who ends up with an unremarkable partner, illustrating how...
