'An Acre of Grass'

Inspired by the poem 'An Acre of Grass' which bears a positive message for old age and puts to rest any consideration than an old man (or woman for that matter!!) is useless. Yeats seeks inspiration from such illustrious old men such as Timon of Athens, King Lear, Blake and Angelo whose mental strength was never undermined even with diminishing physical verve. And an acre of grass suggests the atmosphere necessary for his meditation, his contemplation and his creativity.

AN ACRE OF GRASS

Picture and book remain,
An acre of green grass for air and exercise,
Now strength of body goes;
Midnight, an old house,
Where nothing stirs but a mouse.

My temptation is quiet.
Here at life's end
Neither loose imagination,
Nor the mill of the mind
Consuming it's rag and bonc
Can make the truth known.

Grant me an old man's frenzy,
Myself must I remake
Til I am Timon or Lear
Or that William Blake
Who beat upon the wall
Til Truth obeyed his call.

A mind Michael Angelo knew
That can pierce the clouds,
Or inspired by frenzy
Shake the dead in their shrouds;
Forgotten else by mankind,
An old man's eagle mind.
~William Butler Yeats