Old People

It was hard for me to find a poem that was unfamiliar to me since usually I'm attracted to poetry that I can relate and connect to. But, for this blog post, I decided to examine a poem about aging. I'm a teenager and it's already hard enough to view the world from my parents' perspective sometimes, so I thought reading a poem about growing old would be interesting. I read "Growing Old" by Matthew Arnold" (link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52311/growing-old)

What first struck me about this poem was the author's definition of aging. When I think about aging, I usually think about the physical effects such as the greying hair, the wrinkles, the loss of memory. When I imagine myself as an old person, I think of myself sitting by the fire muttering about how good things were back in the day. I imagine myself to be full of regrets for things I didn't try when I was younger. However, Arnold argues that aging is more than this. He writes that aging " 'tis not what in youth we dreamed 'twould be!". Instead, Arnold frames aging as an almost emotionless process -- which I personally found more frightening.

Here are some lines of Arnold's poem "Growing Old" that I found fascinating:

"It is to spend long days
And not once feel that we were ever young;"

"Deep in our hidden heart
Festers the dull remembrance of a change,
But no emotion -- none"

"It is -- the last stage of all --
When we are frozen up within, and quite
The phantom of ourselves,
To hear the world applaud the hollow ghost
Which blamed the living man."

Obviously, I can't relate to the process of growing old so I don't understand this poem entirely. However, I always imagine that the most painful thing about growing old would be the contrast with youth. You don't look the way you used to do. Your memory wasn't as good as when you were younger. Aging is scary for me because I won't be young anymore or maybe won't remember the experience of being young at all. In that respect, I can understand a little bit of the sentiment of Arnold's poem. In addition, Arnold frames the process of growing old as this utterly emotionless and hollow process. But I can't imagine how being emotionless would feel or how it would feel to be "frozen up within". In addition, although I've never experienced what it's like to be old, I don't completely agree with Arnold's depiction of aging. According to him, aging seems like such a cynical and negative process. However, I think there are probably some joyful things about aging.

I also found the last two lines to be interesting. I don't know the exact meaning of the last two lines but I interpreted as the speaker express his sorrow for the fact that people or society will acknowledge the accomplishments of your youth but the acknowledgment feels hollow because you aren't the same person anymore. My parents have always told me that you have to work hard when your younger so that you can have a more successful life when you're older. In some respects, I think that advice is valid but Arnold's poem "Growing Old" serves as a counterpoint to that idea. Would it really be worth it wait until your old to enjoy yourself when your body and mind start failing you?