Ogden Nash

Old Men

Old Men - meaning Summary

Public Indifference, Private Knowing

Nash observes how society treats aging men with casual indifference: their deaths provoke little outward mourning. The poem contrasts the public’s detached, curious gaze with the deeper recognition that other old men have. It suggests a quiet, shared awareness among the elderly that outsiders lack. The tone is wry and matter-of-fact, pointing out a social tendency to minimize the significance of old lives until they are gone.

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People expect old men to die, They do not really mourn old men. Old men are different. People look At them with eyes that wonder when… People watch with unshocked eyes; But the old men know when an old man dies.

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