What Fifty Said..
What Fifty Said.. - meaning Summary
Learning Ages Reversed
The poem presents a concise meditation on how sources of learning shift over a lifetime. In youth the speaker learned from elders, trading passion for disciplined form and absorbing the past. In old age the roles reverse: the young become teachers, and the speaker confronts lessons that demand repair, flexibility, and an openness to the future. The tone is wry and reflective, acknowledging loss of earlier certainties while accepting new vulnerabilities and the need to be remade by younger perspectives. It charts a personal, cyclical change in where authority and wisdom are found.
Read Complete AnalysesWhen I was young my teachers were the old. I gave up fire for form till I was cold. I suffered like a metal being cast. I went to school to age to learn the past. Now when I am old my teachers are the young. What can’t be molded must be cracked and sprung. I strain at lessons fit to start a suture. I got to school to youth to learn the future.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.