{
 "id": "william-carlos-williams/the-old-men",
 "title": "The Old Men",
 "poet": "William Carlos Williams",
 "poet_slug": "william-carlos-williams",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Al Que Quiere! A Book of Poems",
 "book_slug": "al-que-quiere",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 36,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1917,
  "venue": "Al Que Quiere! A Book of Poems (1917)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51997"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/william-carlos-williams_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31878",
   "https://archive.org/details/temperscarlos00willrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51997",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006060238",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35667",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007676947"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 22,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 33,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Old men who have studied",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "every leg show",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "in the city",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Old men cut from touch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "by the perfumed music⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "polished or fleeced skulls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "that stand before",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the whole theater",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "in silent attitudes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "of attention,⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "old men who have taken precedence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "over young men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "and even over dark-faced",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "husbands whose minds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "are a street with arc-lights.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Solitary old men for whom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "we find no excuses⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I bow my head in shame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "for those who malign you.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Old men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "the peaceful beer of impotence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "be yours!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}