The theme is the theme is thoughts of elderly? And that there is only one life to live so live it well? This poem seems confusing.. it is either really easy and literal or metaphoric..

Question

I need to write a paper on the atmosphere of this poem and I think the atmosphere is lonely(1st stanza), pensive/reflective(2nd stnaza), and depressing(3rd stanza). But I do not know how to support this argument so I am trying to use word choice/sentence structure, theme, and imagery as support but I do not know which points of evidence to use to prove each of the 3 supports.

Home For the Aged by Elizabeth Brewster:

The old men sit, five of them on a bench,
Half sleeping, half awake, dazed by the sun,
In the muted afternoon, between one broadcast ball game and the next
Their thoughts are leaves that drifted across a sky perpetually autumn.
Their hands are folded: they have done with the Sunday papers.

Decorously shabby, decently combed and clean,
They watch with half closed eyes the passers-by,
The loitering lovers, the boys on bikes , the cars
Rushing eagerly to some scene of active life .

Their lives are folded up like the papers, and who can know
Whether their years passed sober and discreet,
With the measured, dutiful, regular click of a clock,
Or whether some old violence lingers still
In faded headlines on their dusty brains?
What boyhood do they wander in, what middle age forget?
And do they watch their dwindling stock of time
With hope, or resignation, or despair?

Answer 1

Any works of art -- poetry included -- is up to each of us to interpret. Each of us interprets different works based on our individual experiences. If I had read this poem 6 months ago, my perceptions and reactions would have been quite different from how I perceive this poem now. Within the past 6 months, I lost my mother, and for 8 weeks during that time, I witnessed a person whom I often didn't recognize. That last stanza especially means something very different to me now from what it would have meant 6 months ago.

You have to decide how you'll interpret this according to what YOU have witnessed/experienced regarding the elderly. If you have never been around truly elderly people, then you'll have to take this poem literally.

Let me know what you think that last stanza is saying. Remember, this is YOUR perception. There is not only one right answer!

Answer 2

*Any work of art ... *

Answer 3

I think the last stanza is saying how its kinda of sad not knowing what the life of an elderly was like and their perspective on death whether with "hope, or resignation, or despair?" It kinda gives off a lonely, pensive, and depressing atmosphere because they look like they are living a passive life and the juxtaposition of "half sleeping, half awake" sharply contrasts their surroundings of youngsters "rushing eagerly to some scene of life". So I guess it shows that no matter how calm and boring the elderly seem, you can never know what is really there?

Answer 4

Exactly!!

Keep this in mind, though: The word "elderly" is an adjective, not a noun. Be sure to use it as an adjective!

an elderly woman
those elderly men
elderly people
an elderly person
...