The Old Men Admiring Themselves In The Water

by

William Butler Yeats


I heard the old, old men say,

"Everything alters,

And one by one we drop away."

They had hands like claws, and their knees

Were twisted like the old thorn-trees

By the waters.

I heard the old, old men say,

"All that's beautiful drifts away

Like the waters."



(1904)


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