Lines for an Old Man Summary

In this poem, the narrator is an old man, who says that age has not mellowed him, but has, in fact, made him more virulent and less tolerant. He even revels in this, not caring that in his old age he is a bitter man.

Lines for an Old Man Analysis

Eliot's shows the reader that a person can mire himself in the quicksand of bitterness and contempt if he or she leaves wrong thoughts and emotions unchecked. He shows that the later years of one's life can be wasted with these negative emotions and rob a person of contemplative joy as he or she looks back on their life. Eliot wants to show the reader that bitterness is as wasting a disease as any physical one. It is one that harms the body and...