<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 2.5rem; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Growing Old</span><div dir="ltr"><div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(80, 101, 110);"><br></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(80, 101, 110);">by Matthew Arnold</span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(80, 101, 110);">What is it to grow old?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Is it to lose the glory of the form,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">The lustre of the eye?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Is it for beauty to forgo her wreath?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">—Yes, but not this alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p><span data-inserter-version="2" id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-621" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 101, 110); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: medium; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"></span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.9rem; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 101, 110); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(80, 101, 110);">Is it to feel our strength—<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Not our bloom only, but our strength—decay?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Is it to feel each limb<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Grow stiffer, every function less exact,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Each nerve more loosely strung?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.9rem; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 101, 110); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(80, 101, 110);">Yes, this, and more; but not<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ah, ’tis not what in youth we dreamed ‘twould be!<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">‘Tis not to have our life<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Mellowed and softened as with sunset glow,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">A golden day’s decline.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(80, 101, 110);">’Tis not to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://pickmeuppoetry.org/television-prevents-me-from-seeing-the-world-as-it-really-is-by-carmen-gimenez-smith/" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114); box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-box-shadow: none; box-shadow: none;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 51, 102); text-decoration: none;">see the world</span></a><br style="box-sizing: border-box;">As from a height, with rapt prophetic eyes,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">And heart profoundly stirred;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">And weep, and feel the fullness of the past,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">The years that are no more.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.9rem; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 101, 110); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(80, 101, 110);">It is to spend long days<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">And not once feel that we were ever young;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">It is to add, immured<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the hot prison of the present, month<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">To month with weary pain.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.9rem; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 101, 110); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(80, 101, 110);">It is to suffer this,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">And feel but half, and feebly, what we feel.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Deep in our hidden heart<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Festers the dull remembrance of a change,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">But no emotion—none.<o:p></o:p></span></p><span data-inserter-version="2" id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-630" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 101, 110); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: medium; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"></span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.9rem; font-size: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 101, 110); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(80, 101, 110);">It is—last stage of all—<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">When we are frozen up within, and quite<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">The phantom of ourselves,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">To hear the world applaud the hollow ghost<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">Which blamed the living man.</span></p></div>————————————————-<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">http://www.MoscowCares.net</span></div><div><br></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div><div>“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”</div><div>- Roy E. Stolworthy</div><div></div></div></div></div></body></html>