"The Old Men"

By Rudyard Kipling (1902)

This is our lot if we live so long and labour unto the end –
Then we outlive the impatient years

and the much too patient friend:

And because we know we have breath in our mouth

and think we have thoughts enough in our head,

We shall assume that we are alive,

whereas we are really dead.

We shall not acknowledge that old stars fade

or stronger planets arise
(That the sere bush buds or the desert blooms or the ancient well-head dries),
Or any new compass wherewith new men adventure ‘neath new skies.

We shall lift up the ropes that constrained our youth,

to bind on our children’s hands;

We shall call to the waters below the bridges

to return and to replenish our lands;

We shall harness (Death’s own pale horses)

and scholarly plough the sands.

We shall lie down in the eye of the sun

for lack of a light on our way –

We shall rise up when the day is done

and chirrup, “Behold, it is day!”

We shall abide till the battle is won

ere we amble into the fray.

We shall peck out and discuss and dissect,

and evert and extrude to our mind,

The flaccid tissues of long-dead issues

offensive to God and mankind –

(Precisely like vultures over an ox

that the army left behind).

We shall make walk preposterous ghosts

of the glories we once created –

Immodestly smearing from muddled palettes

amazing pigments mismated –

And our friend will weep when we ask them with boasts

if our natural force be abated.

The Lamp of our Youth will be utterly out,

but we shall subsist on the smell of it;

And whatever we do, we shall fold our hands

and suck our gums and think well of it.

Yes, we shall be perfectly pleased with our work,

and that is the Perfectest Hell of it!

This is our lot if we live so long and listen to those who love us –
That we are shunned by the people about and shamed by the Powers above us.
Wherefore be free of your harness betimes; but, being free be assured,
That he who hath not endured to the death, from his birth he hath never endured!