Poem by William Butler Yeats

The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water

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."

1. To Ireland in the Coming Times
2. The Dedication to a Book of Stories Selected from the Irish Novelists
3. The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner
4. The Pity of Love
5. The Rose of Peace

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