On Growing Old - John Masefield

This is a personal review for the poem 'On Growing Old' by John Masefield. Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.

Be with me, Beauty, for the fire is dying;
My dog and I are old, too old for roving.
Man, whose young passion sets the spindrift flying,
Is soon too lame to march, too cold for loving.
I take the book and gather to the fire,
Turning old yellow leaves; minute by minute
The clock ticks to my heart. A withered wire,
Moves a thin ghost of music in the spinet.
I cannot sail your seas, I cannot wander
Your cornland, nor your hill-land, nor your valleys
Ever again, nor share the battle yonder
Where the young knight the broken squadron rallies.
Only stay quiet while my mind remembers
The beauty of fire from the beauty of embers.

Beauty, have pity! for the strong have power,
The rich their wealth, the beautiful their grace,
Summer of man its sunlight and its flower.
Spring-time of man, all April in a face.
Only, as in the jostling in the Strand,
Where the mob thrusts, or loiters, or is loud,
The beggar with the saucer in his hand
Asks only a penny from the passing crowd,
So, from this glittering world with all its fashion,
Its fire, and play of men, its stir, its march,
Let me have wisdom, Beauty, wisdom and passion,
Bread to the soul, rain when the summers parch.
Give me but these, and though the darkness close
Even the night will blossom as the rose.

MEANING OF DIFFICULT WORDS

1.      Roving – adj roaming or wandering

2.      spindrift  — sea spray.  Masefield did three years' training for the Merchant Navy in his teens, and at age sixteen was taken on for a three-month voyage via Cape Horn to Chile on a sailing ship, the Gilcruix. Other than routine transatlantic crossings as a passenger, that was his entire experience of the sea. Yet those experiences impressed him so much, he wrote numerous memorable sea poems — Stanford's selection includes sixteen — and is often thought of as a sea poet. Even when not writing about the sea, nautical terms crop up all over the place in his verse, as here.

3.      spinet  — a small harpsichord having a single keyboard

4.      yonder – adj being in that place or over there; being that or those over there

POETIC/LITERARY DEVICES

1.      Anaphora

·         “My dog and I are old, too old for roving.”[line 2]

·         “Is soon too lame to march, too cold for loving” [line 4]

·         “Turning old yellow leaves; minute by minute”[line 6]

·         “I cannot sail your seas, I cannot wander” [line 9]

·         “The beauty of fire from the beauty of embers.” [line 14]

·         “Let me have wisdom, Beauty, wisdom and passion,” [line 25]

2.      Personification

·         Fire is dying

·         Withered wire

·         Thin ghost of music

·         Night will blossom as the rose

3.      Metaphors

·         “Be with me, Beauty, for the fire is dying; My dog and I are old, too old for roving” [line 1 and 2] Masefield is suggesting that the persona is getting older and closer to death. The ‘fire’ represents the life of the persona.

·         “Only stay quiet while my mind remembers The beauty of fire from the beauty of embers” [line 13 and 14] ‘fire’ here is referred to the youthful man and woman while ‘embers’ is referred to the elderly people. Fire is used to prove the strong and powerful young man and woman, igniting with the passion and will to live but ember is slowly dying.

STANZA BY STANZA ANALYSIS

Line 1 and 2 Be with me, Beauty, for the fire is dying; My dog and I are old, too old for roving.	The persona is asking Beauty to stay with him because he is aware of his decrepit years left and his worn and feeble physical body. We can see that appearances are important to the persona. He also states that he is physically weak and no longer has the strength to wander around.
Line 3 and 4 Man, whose young passion sets the spindrift flying, Is soon too lame to march, too cold for loving.	Masefield here talks about his early years from his experience at the sea. He was taken on for a voyage on a sailing ship and those experiences impressed him so much, he wrote memorable sea poem. He then says that soon he will be too frail to walk. Most elderly people also turn cold and find it hard to love others.
Line 5 to 7 I take the book and gather to the fire, Turning old yellow leaves; minute by minute The clock ticks to my heart	The persona still seeks for knowledge despite his old age or he is looking back to an old book (yellow leaves). Then, he says again about the clock is ticking. The time is moving and it waits for no one. His heart will stop when the time comes.
Line 7 and 8 A withered wire, Moves a thin ghost of music in the spinet.
Line 9 to 14 I cannot sail your seas, I cannot wander Your cornland, nor your hill-land, nor your valleys Ever again, nor share the battle yonder Where the young knight the broken squadron rallies. Only stay quiet while my mind remembers The beauty of fire from the beauty of embers	The persona only can yearn for the youthful activities and years for he is incapable of doing so. He no longer can visit the beautiful places or take part in war where the brave soldiers fight. He feels that he can only reminisce about those wonderful blooming years from his dying body.
Line 15 to 18 Beauty, have pity! for the strong have power, The rich their wealth, the beautiful their grace, Summer of man its sunlight and its flower. Spring-time of man, all April in a face.	Again, the persona asks mercy from Beauty. Masefield stresses that everything comes with something. For the strong have power, the rich with their wealth and the beautiful with their grace. He wishes that with his ageing years, beauty will comes and save him from his wrinkled body.
Line 19 to 26 Only, as in the jostling in the Strand, Where the mob thrusts, or loiters, or is loud, The beggar with the saucer in his hand Asks only a penny from the passing crowd, So, from this glittering world with all its fashion, Its fire, and play of men, its stir, its march, Let me have wisdom, Beauty, wisdom and passion, Bread to the soul, rain when the summers parch.	The persona is describing the world he sees now as he grows older. The mob causing ruckus and the beggar asking for money from the crowd. The ‘glittering world with all its fashion’ can be implied as the intimidating world with all kinds of people and action, so different from what he used to thought it is. The persona wishes for wisdom at his age, to see the world with a new eye and beauty again, for appearance is important to him. He hopes to have the wisdom that will be needed to face the crucial and needing world.
Line 27 and 28 Give me but these, and though the darkness close Even the night will blossom as the rose.	He feels that the wisdom, beauty and passion are important to him that even when the darkness close, the rose will still blossom.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION

Masefield captures the yearning and desperation of an old man to be young and passionate again. It is a beautiful poem narrated with such strong emotion emitting from the persona. The persona wishes that beauty will stay with him while he is getting older. We can see that outer look of a physical being is important to him as he keeps mentioning ‘beauty’. He hopes that he will remain as he was during his youthful years although he is dying. The persona also says that his decrepit body does not allow him to wander around anymore. His weak physical makes him yearn the youthful activities such as sailing and travelling or even taking part in the war. The sadness and desperation is shown with the anaphora used in a few lines, such as these, ‘I cannot sail your seas, I cannot wander’ and ‘My dog and I are old, too old for roving’. He can only stand aside quietly while he remembers those delightful years that had passed from his dying body.

READING MATERIAL

It can be said that each poem may have its own psychological interpretation when dealing with its narrator whether it be from Maslow's, Freud's, or Erikson's perspective. In John Masefield's poem, "On Growing Old," this precept rings especially true. Masefield, throughout his poem, clearly allows the reader to see his narrator's ascendance throughout the tiers of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

A perfect example of one of Maslow's needs can be limned by the reader when Masefield's narrator says, "Be with me, Beauty, for the fire is dying/ My dog and I are old, too old for roving" (1-2). These first two lines clearly point to Maslow's fourth tier, which is his need for esteem. Maslow believes that each individual wants to feel good about himself and, in these two lines, the narrator is asking that his "Beauty" stay with him. He clearly is observant to the fact that he is aging and that, with his age, he is losing his Beauty. Like any person, he is trying to beseech his good looks into staying with him even as he ages. This is a very common human psychological attribute that Maslow believes is innate in all individuals.

Masefield's narrator continues throughout his poem to show how he bounces from one tier to the next in his wizened years. For example, when the narrator says, "I take the book and gather to the fire/ Turning old yellow leaves; minute by minute," he is clearly expressing Maslow's fifth tier need for knowledge (5-6). This is limned by the fact that the narrator is riffing through pages of a book. This act clearly represents the narrator's thirst for knowledge in his old age. The fact that these pages are yellow shows that the book is old and that it may possibly be some sort of encyclopedia or reference book. One might picture an erudite man who is flicking through scholarly journals and lucubrating about concepts of great importance by candlelight if he were to envisage this.

These two lines could also portray Maslow's second tier—the need for safety. In the first line, the narrator expresses, "I take the book and gather to the fire," which could limn to its reader that the narrator is most comfortable with a book in his hands near a fire (5). In line six, the turning of the yellow leaves "minute by minute" could represent that the narrator likes to spend a substantial amount of time in this place of comfort.

Masefield's narrator can be portrayed as having an aesthetic quality when he says, "The clock ticks to my heart; a withered wire/ Moves a thin ghost of music in the spinet" (7-8). Here, Maslow's sixth tier can be limned in line seven when a spinet is mentioned. A spinet is a type of piano, which is a musical instrument and the love of music can portray an aesthetic quality in a person. Since it appears that the narrator has a spinet in his home, he can possibly be described as cultural or aesthetic.

Maslow's sixth tier need for aesthetics can also be limned in this poem when the narrator says to his reader:

I cannot sail your seas, I cannot wander

Your cornland nor your hill-land nor your valleys

Ever again, nor share the battle yonder

Where the young knight the broken squadron rallies;

Only stay quiet, while my mind remembers

The beauty of fire from the beauty of embers (9-14).

Here the narrator is expressing metaphorically that he is very old. The fact that he is using metaphors is an aesthetic quality. He says, "I cannot sail your seas, I cannot wander/ Your cornland nor you hill-land nor your valleys," which is his way of saying that his age has taken away his thirst for emprises (9-10). This lack of wanting to embark on emprises can also be limned when the narrator continues to say, "Ever again, nor share the battle yonder/ Where the young knight the broken squadron rallies" (11-12). Finally the narrator says, "Only stay quiet, while my mind remembers/ The beauty of fire from the beauty of embers" (13-14). This metaphor explains how, in the beginning, his life was tantamount to that of a raging fire, but now he is reduced to the beauty that embers imbue. An "ember" is what is seen when a fire dies out, which signifies the end of his life. All of these tropes ascribe an aesthetic quality to the narrator, which is significant to Maslow's sixth tier of needs.

In the final stanza, the reader can picture a transcendence of the narrator when he avers, "Beauty, have pity, for the strong have power/ The rich their wealth, the beautiful their grace" (15-16). It is here wherein the reader can ascribe Maslow's final tier of self-transcendence to the narrator because he has borne witness to other people's potential. The narrator has finally come to realize that this is how life works. There are the strong who have their power, there are the rich who have their wealth, and there are the beautiful people who have their grace.

Also, in the final stanza, the reader can notice the narrator's self-actualization, which is Maslow's seventh tier of needs. This can be portrayed to the reader when the narrator says:

Let me have wisdom, Beauty, wisdom and passion,

Bread to the soul, rain where the summers parch.

Give me but these, and though the darkness close

Even the night will blossom as the rose (25-28).

When the narrator expresses, "Let me have wisdom...wisdom and passion," he has actualized his potential in life (25). The narrator also knows that his life is ending when he states, "Give me but these, and though the darkness close," but it is here wherein he is asking to receive wisdom and passion for the remainder of his life (27). It is also in these last two lines that he explains to the reader that his life can still have meaning when he says, "Even the night will blossom as the rose" (28). Here the "rose" in line twenty-eight signifies the continuation of life whereas "night" signifies the ending of life.

In the end, one can conclude that, in every piece of poetry, some psychological argument can be made. Although whether that argument be the correct one is entirely subjective, a reader can infer whatever he may want because the true meaning of anything is always found somewhere in the psyche of its own reader.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://sciolistgrammar.blogspot.com/2009/05/on-growing-old.html