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An aging poet with writer’s block scours the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Posted: 05 January 2014
Word Count: 260
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An aging poet with writer’s block scours the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Hard it is to teach an old horse amble true
Thou shouldst not have been old
till thou hadst been wise.
At my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near:
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity
They are not long, the days of wine and roses
Still nursing the unconquerable hope
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress
And all this day an unaccustomed spirit
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts
Pereant qui
ante nos nostra
dixerunt.
(Confound those
who have already written
our best thoughts.)
And the same to you,
Old Aelius Donatus!
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Comments by other Members
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 butterfly2000 at 15:37 on 07 January 2014
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‘Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unaging intellect (the silly billies)‘
a great line to remember, also from Sailing to Byzantium... with a small addition of my own! I do love 'An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick...' visionary and timeless
'Confound those who have already written our best thoughts...’ how many times have I been frustrated by this very notion! If only I could be original, but I am confined to lesser goals alas. Love the title – very evocative in itself ;0)
It has inspired the germination of a story… When I have written it, I’ll let you know! So thank you
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 James Graham at 11:33 on 09 January 2014
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If only I could be original
Depends what you mean by original. Much of the time we're writing about the same things poets have written about over and over again - nature, human relationships, death - but times change, and sensibilities change, so we we take the same old stuff and write about it in fresh new ways. You are original, and so am I.
I never thought this concoction of assorted quotes would inspire anything, but I'm glad it has. Go for it!
James.
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 Artista at 22:16 on 15 January 2014
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I can relate to all of this James. I'm having trouble turning off the quotes... I click on " then paste, but can't get out of quote mode... Sugar... Anyway
I particularly liked this piece
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress
Jo
<Added>
It really is distracting to have to field website glitches. It takes us away from the original intention which is the critique.why is the font so small and feint when writing this post, it is barely legible, yet when the post comes up it is in a good size clear font?
Frustrating to say the very least
Jo
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James Graham at 19:12 on 16 January 2014
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Thanks, Jo. I'm partly replying to your comment and partly testing the quote box function, as I'm sure you'll appreciate. Yes, the Yeats lines are wonderful:
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress
The first quote isn't such great poetry, but it has a certain charm for me:
Hard it is to teach an old horse amble true
That's Spenser, by the way. I'm waiting for some other members to respond to any of the current poems. None so far.
James.
<Added>
Jo - for how to get quote boxes right, see the 'Site Changes' thread in this group.
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 V`yonne at 14:49 on 18 January 2014
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I am having trouble being original  I was trying to put something together for a pamphlet contest and the more I looked at my poems the more C19th passe they seemed -- so I gave up! Therefore James I enjoyed this very much. It amused me in a kind of masochistic way and I am not even trying to use these damn quote marks :( or to make 100 word comments.
Despondently
Oonah
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.jpg) RalphFSmith at 17:12 on 23 January 2014
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James,
As a former English lit scholar, I love the poem and recognize most of the quotations (the first is from Spencer but I did not know it as such, and I have never heard of Dowson). What is great is that you move from resignation to (by the end of the poem) defiance. I wondered why you ended by condemning Aelius Donatus? Was it because he was a purveyor of proper grammar?
Best regards,
Ralph
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James Graham at 21:21 on 24 January 2014
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Thanks, Ralph. The lines at the end aren't meant to condemn Aelius Donatus for his Ars Grammatica. They're just a tongue-in cheek reproof - when he says 'Confound those who have already written our best thoughts' he too, like Spenser, Yeats etc, has said something I wish I had been the first to say!
Soon I hope to post a new poem in my own words.
James.
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