The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner Summary and Important Question Answers

The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner
-W.B Yeats

The Lamentation Of The Old Pensioner Summary

The lamentation of the Old Pensioner’ is an earlier poem revised with a new title. It is composed by an Irish poet and dramatist, W.B. Yeats. The poem presents the poet’s reminiscence of his young life with a contrast of the present state. Owing to the contrast between his youth and old age, the poet feels more and more miserable
, which fills him with rage and the poem ends with a contemptuous expression against time.

According to the poem, the speaker draws a comparison between his delightful past and the miserable present and considers the time being responsible for it because he thinks it has transfigured him into an old man. At present, he is obliged to shelter under a broken tree. On the contrary, he used to enjoy talking about love or politics in every company before the time changed him into an old man. Being lost in reminiscences of the glorious past, the speaker is shocked to see the dreadful present where the mischievous lads and the crazy rascals give him constant troubles. Because of such a shocking contrast, the poet is driven to think of the time with an attitude of blaming it for the change. Thus the lamentation leads him towards contemplation while filling his heart with rage against time.

In the last stanza, he feels humiliated to think of women who pay no attention towards him as he is no better than a broken tree. This humiliation provokes him to end the poem with the expression: “I spit into the face of Time, That has transfigured me.”

The poem is well-written with the shifts in the subject matter in the three stanzas. For instance, the first stanza deals with reminiscences of the past, and the second stanza focuses on the present state with the speaker’s contemplation of time whereas the third stanza concentrates on humiliating situations and rage. The refrain in the poem becomes quite significant because it emphasizes the aspect of the transfiguration of the speaker and the role played by time. The whole poem is written in a tone of rage.

The remarkable quality of the poem is the blend of description and reflection of the poet. The speaker’s reflection over his state changes his mood and tone from one stanza to another. With the content tone of the speaker as perceived in the first stanza gradually turns into more and more violent and furious in the second and third stanzas. The bitter realization about the humiliating state makes the pendulum of the speaker’s mood swing to the other side of the contentment and strike at the tone of fury in the end.

The Lamentation Of The Old Pensioner Important Questions and Answers

Q.1 Why does the speaker want to spit into the face of time ?

Ans: According to the poem, the speaker draws a comparison between his delightful past and the miserable present and considers the time being responsible for it because he thinks it has transfigured him into an old man. At present, he is obliged to shelter under a broken tree. On the contrary, he used to enjoy talking about love or politics in every company before the time changed him into an old man. Being lost in reminiscences of the glorious past, the speaker is shocked to see the dreadful present where the mischievous lads and the crazy rascals give him constant troubles. Because of such a shocking contrast, the poet is driven to think of the time with an attitude of blaming it for the change. Therefore, he wants to spit into the face of time.

Q.2 Write an essay on “Youth & Age” in about 250 words.

Ans: Life is a journey from womb to tomb. A person has to cross different phases of life if he lives a full life. A child of yesterday becomes a young today and old tomorrow. Eventually, he or she disappears from the world and lives in his permanent home, the grave. So, youth and old age are two sides of life. They are completely different but inseparable just like two sides of the paper.

Youth is the most interesting and important phase of human life. A person becomes physically healthy and mentally sound in this phase. He or she becomes courageous to do any adventurous (risky) work. Youth is energetic and romantic, too. Young people keep interested in love and politics. Most of them don’t care about the past and future but try to make the present perfect. They spend a lot of time with friends in entertainment and creative activities too. If they make the best use of this phase, they can make their future bright. We find some young people misusing their time of youth and damaging their future.

Old age is rather a miserable phase of human life. A person becomes physically weak and mentally forgetful. He or she spends much time at home remembering the happy days of his/her youth. He or she expects help from young people to do any work. He or she keeps interested not in romantic love but in family, love and religion. He or she wants to visit temples and so many other holy places. He or she likes to tell young people the story of young people according to his or her own experiences. However, unlike joyous youth, old age is bitter and painful. So, old people are very much passive, dull, and pessimistic.


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