Poem's by Yeats 4 (4/4)

Poem: The Old Men admiring Themselves in the Water (85)
Poem:
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.'


The poem is a declaration of sadness, that is emphasized by the tone which is conveyed through the word "old" that is used repeatedly throughout the poem. The speaker, however, is communicating the sadness; the speaker isn't the primary source, evident in the lines starting "I heard". This exchange in feeling between the "old, old men" and the speaker conveys the age motif, used throughout all of Yeats's poems. Because the speaker is narrating the poem, and what the old men are saying, it is metaphor for what the speaker will anticipate when he becomes old. The line "'Everything alters,'" serves many purposes, the reader first interprets the line as a symbol for the signs of aging (due to enjambment), however, in relation to the title "The Old Men admiring Themselves in the Water", it is also referring to the unsteady water that they are admiring themselves in. It is emphasized by the last two lines "'All that's beautiful drifts away Like the waters.'" The situation of the old men admiring themselves in water is a metaphor that "'all that's beautiful'", themselves, drift away, like the water they're admiring themselves in. Water has many connotations of purity, however, water is temporary; its always moving, it can freeze and evaporate. It is important to note the lines "'one by one we drop away.'They had hands like claws, and their knees Were twisted like the old thorn trees", the old men, with age, seem to be transfiguring into gnarled being, conveyed through natural imagery, "claws" like a bird (a motif in Yeats's poems), and they're becoming "old thorn-trees". As their beauty "drifts away" they are becoming more natural, and are looking toward the water, to admire themselves, however, the water is showing that their beauty is drifting away.