Discuss the attitudes towards old age as expressed in a selection of poems studied in class.
Old age brings with its advent, its own implications just like any other phase of human life and the wisest thing we can do when age "creeps up" on us is to explore its possibilities and profit by it.
R.S. Thomas, "the hewer of stony verse", wrote "Good", a wonderful poem, in which not a single image or phrase seems out of place, and the simplicity of its themes and directness of language show the characteristic care with which Thomas selected and arranged his words.
The poem itself is quiet and restrained and achieves a slow grandeur denied to most evocations of death, old age and the passing of time. The scene is set immediately as "the old man comes out on the hill", hinting undoubtedly at a long, possibly tiring lifetime's journey. The opening image makes a dramatic and lasting impression on the reader and establishes a sense of purity and perfection as the old man attempts to recapture his "earlier days" spent in the valley below.
This is quickly followed by beautifully crafted figures of speech, "the stream shine" obviously representing the old man's life cycle, his aspirations and joys, but in a way it is almost ironic; the "stream" will continue to "shine" unlike his own life which will be soon be over. At the centre of the purely descriptive life of this poem is the church, its building and its practice, clearly influenced by Thomas's own background, since he was an Anglican priest who served the Church of Wales as a "parish vicar". Next we hear "the littler of children's voices" an evocative, joyful metaphor that implies a joy in the natural cycle and continuity of life.
Old age brings with its advent, its own implications just like any other phase of human life and the wisest thing we can do when age "creeps up" on us is to explore its possibilities and profit by it.
R.S. Thomas, "the hewer of stony verse", wrote "Good", a wonderful poem, in which not a single image or phrase seems out of place, and the simplicity of its themes and directness of language show the characteristic care with which Thomas selected and arranged his words.
The poem itself is quiet and restrained and achieves a slow grandeur denied to most evocations of death, old age and the passing of time. The scene is set immediately as "the old man comes out on the hill", hinting undoubtedly at a long, possibly tiring lifetime's journey. The opening image makes a dramatic and lasting impression on the reader and establishes a sense of purity and perfection as the old man attempts to recapture his "earlier days" spent in the valley below.
This is quickly followed by beautifully crafted figures of speech, "the stream shine" obviously representing the old man's life cycle, his aspirations and joys, but in a way it is almost ironic; the "stream" will continue to "shine" unlike his own life which will be soon be over. At the centre of the purely descriptive life of this poem is the church, its building and its practice, clearly influenced by Thomas's own background, since he was an Anglican priest who served the Church of Wales as a "parish vicar". Next we hear "the littler of children's voices" an evocative, joyful metaphor that implies a joy in the natural cycle and continuity of life.
