Thursday, July 16, 2009

Fortyish Food for Thought



A section of William Butler Yeats's "Vacillation:"


Get all the gold and silver that you can,
Satisfy ambition, or animate
The trivial days and ram them with the sun,
And yet upon these maxims meditate:
All women dote upon an idle man
Although their children need a rich estate;
No man has ever lived that had enough
Of children's gratitude or woman's love.

No longer in Lethean foliage caught
Begin the preparation for your death
And from the fortieth winter by that thought
Test every work of intellect or faith
And everything that your own hands have wrought,
And call those works extravagance of breath
That are not suited for such men as come
Proud, open-eyed and laughing to the tomb.

The full poem is here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

'...laughing to the tomb' - I can't think of a finer way to exit.

No one wants to be dragged kicking and screaming to the grave - or through life for that matter.