Growing Old Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDE FGHIJ KLMNO PQRST UJSVW XYSZA2 B2SC2SD2

What is it to grow oldA
Is it to lose the glory of the formB
The lustre of the eyeC
Is it for beauty to forego her wreathD
Yes but not for this aloneE
-
Is it to feel our strengthF
Not our bloom only but our strength decayG
Is it to feel each limbH
Grow stiffer every function less exactI
Each nerve more weakly strungJ
-
Yes this and more but notK
Ah 'tis not what in youth we dreamed 'twould beL
'Tis not to have our lifeM
Mellowed and softened as with sunset glowN
A golden day's declineO
-
'Tis not to see the worldP
As from a height with rapt prophetic eyesQ
And heart profoundly stirredR
And weep and feel the fulness of the pastS
The years that are no moreT
-
It is to spend long daysU
And not once feel that we were ever youngJ
It is to add immuredS
In the hot prison of the present monthV
To month with weary painW
-
It is to suffer thisX
And feel but half and feebly what we feelY
Deep in our hidden heartS
Festers the dull remembrance of a changeZ
But no emotion noneA2
-
It is last stage of allB2
When we are frozen up within and quiteS
The phantom of ourselvesC2
To hear the world applaud the hollow ghostS
Which blamed the living manD2

Matthew Arnold



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