Poems of W.B. Yeats: The Rose Lesson Plan

What is the old man mourning in "The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner"? How do you think the poet wants us to feel about the old man?

In the poem, the man seems to address young people, telling them that he shared their concerns for politics and true love when he was their age but has since turned his attention towards more serious questions of "Time" and other concepts. According to many of the other poems in this collection, this is what the poet urges people to do as well: like King Fergus, they should concern themselves with wisdom. However, the old man in this poem is not better off for having done this: he curses time for taking away the youthful energy that had once...