Poem by William Butler Yeats

A Prayer for Old Age

God guard me from those thoughts men think
In the mind alone;
He that sings a lasting song
Thinks in a marrow-bone;

From all that makes a wise old man
That can be praised of all;
O what am I that I should not seem
For the song's sake a fool?

I pray -- for word is out
And prayer comes round again --
That I may seem, though I die old,
A foolish, passionate man. 

1. Tom at Cruachan
2. Parting
3. Under Ben Bulben
4. Love's Loneliness
5. The Fairy Pendant

Madison Cawein A Prayer for Old Age ("These are the things which I would ask of Time")

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