DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Growing Old" by Matthew Arnold Originally read: March 3, 2013 More information about the Poet: Matthew Arnold   The poem is in quintains and I don't know why.  There's kind of an arc set up there, but it's not really harped upon on the poem.  Instead the poem opens up with a rhetorical question "What is it to grow old" and right there I feel the audience is set.  There has to be some interest about growing old (which is also in the title) -- because the questions don't stop coming. 1) Is it to lose the glory of the form? 2) The lustre of the eye? 3) Is it for beauty to forgo her wreath? Yes, but not alone 4) Is it to feel our strength - not our bloom only, but our strength decay? (for this line in particular, the line break here brings an emphasis on "strength" in the positive, only to be undercut by "decay" in the next line -- the break of expectation) 5)Is it to feel each limb grow stiffer, ...