{
 "id": "w-b-yeats/a-man-young-and-old",
 "title": "A Man Young and Old",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "W. B. Yeats",
 "poet_slug": "w-b-yeats",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Tower",
 "book_slug": "the-tower",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 8,
 "container": "The Tower",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1928,
  "venue": "The Tower (1928)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
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  ]
 },
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  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-21"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 142,
  "n_stanzas": 19,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
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  [
   {
    "text": "Though nurtured like the sailing moon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In beauty’s murderous brood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She walked awhile and blushed awhile",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on my pathway stood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until I thought her body bore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A heart of flesh and blood.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But since I laid a hand thereon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And found a heart of stone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have attempted many things",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And not a thing is done,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For every hand is lunatic",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That travels on the moon.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She smiled and that transfigured me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And left me but a lout,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Maundering here, and maundering there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Emptier of thought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than heavenly circuit of its stars",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the moon sails out.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Like the moon her kindness is,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If kindness I may call",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What has no comprehension in’t,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But is the same for all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As though my sorrow were a scene",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon a painted wall.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So like a bit of stone I lie",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under a broken tree.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I could recover if I shrieked",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My heart’s agony",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To passing bird, but I am dumb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From human dignity.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A mermaid found a swimming lad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Picked him for her own,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pressed her body to his body,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Laughed; and plunging down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forgot in cruel happiness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That even lovers drown.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I have pointed out the yelling pack,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hare leap to the wood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when I pass a compliment",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rejoice as lover should",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the drooping of an eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the mantling of the blood.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then suddenly my heart is wrung",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By her distracted air",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I remember wildness lost",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And after, swept from there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Am set down standing in the wood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the death of the hare.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A crazy man that found a cup,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When all but dead of thirst,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hardly dared to wet his mouth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Imagining, moon accursed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That another mouthful",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his beating heart would burst.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "October last I found it too",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But found it dry as bone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And for that reason am I crazed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And my sleep is gone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We should be hidden from their eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Being but holy shows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bodies broken like a thorn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whereon the bleak north blows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To think of buried Hector",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that none living knows.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The women take so little stock",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In what I do or say",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They’d sooner leave their cosseting",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To hear a jackass bray;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My arms are like the twisted thorn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet there beauty lay;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The first of all the tribe lay there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And did such pleasure take⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She who had brought great Hector down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And put all Troy to wreck⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That she cried into this ear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strike me if I shriek.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Laughter not time destroyed my voice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And put that crack in it,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when the moon’s pot-bellied",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I get a laughing fit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For that old Madge comes down the lane",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A stone upon her breast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a cloak wrapped about the stone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she can get no rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With singing hush and hush-a-bye;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She that has been wild",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And barren as a breaking wave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thinks that the stone’s a child.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Peter that had great affairs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And was a pushing man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shrieks, “I am King of the Peacocks,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And perches on a stone;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And then I laugh till tears run down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the heart thumps at my side,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Remembering that her shriek was love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that he shrieks from pride.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We sat under an old thorn-tree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And talked away the night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Told all that had been said or done",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Since first we saw the light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when we talked of growing up",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Knew that we’d halved a soul",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fell the one in t’other’s arms",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That we might make it whole;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then Peter had a murdering look",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For it seemed that he and she",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had spoken of their childish days",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under that very tree.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O what a bursting out there was,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And what a blossoming,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When we had all the summer time",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she had all the spring.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I have old women’s secrets now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That had those of the young;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Madge tells me what I dared not think",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When my blood was strong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And what had drowned a lover once",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sounds like an old song.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though Margery is stricken dumb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If thrown in Madge’s way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We three make up a solitude;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For none alive to-day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can know the stories that we know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or say the things we say:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How such a man pleased women most",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all that are gone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How such a pair loved many years",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And such a pair but one,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stories of the bed of straw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or the bed of down.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O bid me mount and sail up there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amid the cloudy wrack,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Peg and Meg and Paris’ love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That had so straight a back,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are gone away, and some that stay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have changed their silk for sack.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Were I but there and none to hear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’d have a peacock cry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For that is natural to a man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That lives in memory,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Being all alone I’d nurse a stone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sing it lullaby.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}