This contemplative poem about ageing and the impact of age upon creativity was written in 1936, when Yeats was seventy-one years old. He assesses what remains to him at this age. The first things he mentions are art and literature – ‘Picture and book remain’ – as they are timeless and do not age. This may also refer to the paintings and books Yeats kept when he downsized to a smaller house in his later years. He has some land: ‘An acre of green grass/ For air and exercise,/ Now strength of body goes’. He needs the fresh air and exercise as he gets older. The expression ‘put out to grass’ is also used to describe someone who has to stop working because they are considered too old. He creates a sense of stillness and peace in the lines: ‘Midnight, an old house/ Where nothing stirs but a mouse.’ Midnight represents the end of the day, and thus old age, but it also represents a new day coming, giving a hopeful tone to the poem.
In the second stanza Yeats talks about the changes age has wrought upon him: ‘My temptation is quiet./ Here at life’s end’. These lines give the impression that his passions have been quenched. The next lines suggest that he feels he cannot achieve anything more, creatively speaking: ‘Neither loose imagination,/ Nor the mill of the mind/ Consuming its rag and bone,/ Can make the truth known.’ The adjective ‘loose’ suggests an imagination that has become slack. Alliteration connects ‘mill’ and ‘mind’, suggesting our minds are like factories; we put raw materials in and they are processed into memories. The ‘factory’ consumes ‘rag and bone’, meaning scrap and waste, yet Yeats’ mind turned such material into eloquent writings. ‘Circus Animals’ Desertion’, a very famous poem of Yeats’ (although not on the Leaving Cert course), also explores the impact of ageing on creativity, and concludes with the poignant lines: ‘Now that my ladder’s gone/ I must lie down where all the ladders start/ In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.’ The ladder Yeats refers to is his ability to write, which he felt he was losing. The ‘rag and bone shop of the heart’ is a sad insight into his old heart, filled with broken dreams and
