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Growing Old
POEM TEXT SUMMARY
What does aging mean? Does it mean losing our bodies' beauty
1 What is it to grow old? and our eyes' brightness? Does it mean forfeiting the glory (the
2 Is it to lose the glory of the form, metaphorical victory wreath) of our good looks? Yes, but it
3 The luster of the eye? means more than this, too.
4 Is it for beauty to forego her wreath? Does aging erode not only the freshness of youth but our
5 —Yes, but not this alone. strength in general? Does it cause our limbs to stiffen, our
bodily functions to deteriorate, and our nerves to fray?
6 Is it to feel our strength— Yes, but it does more than this, too. Aging isn't what we hoped it
7 Not our bloom only, but our strength—decay? would be when we were young! It doesn't make our lives easy
8 Is it to feel each limb and mellow, as if we were fading into the sunset. Our declining
9 Grow stiffer, every function less exact, years aren't golden years.
10 Each nerve more loosely strung? Aging doesn't mean observing the world as if from a great
height, with the wise eyes of a prophet and a heart full of
11 Yes, this, and more; but not emotion. It doesn't mean nostalgically weeping and missing the
12 Ah, ’tis not what in youth we dreamed ’twould be! years of our youth.
13 ’Tis not to have our life It means going days without feeling as if we had a youth. It
14 Mellowed and softened as with sunset glow, means feeling trapped in the present, as if inside a hot jail cell,
15 A golden day’s decline. and suffering pain and fatigue for months on end.
It means feeling all this pain while even our ability to feel is
16 ’Tis not to see the world badly weakened. Deep down, rotting in our heart, lies the
17 As from a height, with rapt prophetic eyes, memory of some significant change, but we don't attach any
18 And heart profoundly stirred; emotion to it whatsoever.
19 And weep, and feel the fullness of the past, In the final phase—when we're frozen over inside and feel like
20 The years that are no more. ghosts of what we once were—aging means listening to people
praise our ghostly selves, even though they criticized us when
21 It is to spend long days we felt fully alive.
22 And not once feel that we were ever young;
23 It is to add, immured
24 In the hot prison of the present, month
THEMES
25 To month with weary pain.
AGING, DECLINE, AND LOSS
26 It is to suffer this, Matthew Arnold's "Growing Old" is just what its title
27 And feel but half, and feebly, what we feel. suggests: a reflection on aging. As the poem's
28 Deep in our hidden heart speaker grows older, he reports that all the worst stereotypes
29 Festers the dull remembrance of a change, about aging are true but that all the positive ones are false. For
30 But no emotion—none. example, aging does take away one's strength, beauty, mobility,
etc., but it doesn't bring a "Mellow[]" calm in return. Nor does it
31 It is—last stage of all— bring "prophetic" insight or the comforts of nostalgia. Instead, it
brings a cruel combination of physical pain and emotional
32 When we are frozen up within, and quite
numbness. The poem offers no reassurance at all, then, but
33 The phantom of ourselves,
warns aging readers to prepare for a long struggle—for years
34 To hear the world applaud the hollow ghost that will be anything but "golden."
35 Which blamed the living man.
The speaker reports that growing old is a process of prolonged,
painful "decline." He confirms that aging weakens the body and

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eyesight, frays the nerves, stiffens the limbs, and erodes shallow, and any reputation we hope to leave behind is flimsy at
physical beauty. But he repeatedly adds, in effect: wait, there's best. The speaker doesn't say why the world changes its
more! These well-known effects of aging aren't even the worst attitude toward the very old but implies that this about-face is
part of the process. phony and superficial. It could be sentimental or driven by guilt;
The speaker then debunks the common idea that age brings it could also be driven by greed (dying people often leave
contentment and wisdom. He warns that old age is not what "in inheritances behind!). Regardless, the "applau[se]," which might
youth we dreamed 'twould be." In other words, he has no good seem to be a perk of aging, turns out to be yet another
news to offset the bad; any comforting "dream[s]" about the downside. It may even be the worst downside, since its
"golden" years are simply myths. He reports that age doesn't phoniness kills any dream of a secure legacy that will outlive us.
"Mellow[]" the mood or cast a "sunset glow" over one's life. Nor
does it offer a "prophetic" vision of the world or "stir[]" the Where this theme appears in the poem:
heart with intense nostalgia. Instead, aging numbs the • Lines 31-35
emotions. While the body suffers "weary pain," the "heart"
freezes over—to the point where one can no longer remember
youth, let alone miss it.
LINE-BY
LINE-BY-LINE
-LINE ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS
In short, the poem offers a sober warning; it encourages an
attitude of stoic realism toward the aging process. Toward the LINES 1-5
end, the speaker echoes the "All the world's a stage" speech
What is it to grow old?
from Shakespeare's As Y You
ou Lik
Likee It
It, which warns that old age
Is it to lose the glory of the form,
destroys teeth, taste, eyesight, and "everything" else in life.
The luster of the eye?
Similarly, Arnold's poem cautions readers not to expect any
Is it for beauty to forego her wreath?
gains in return for all that old age takes away.
—Yes, but not this alone.
Where this theme appears in the poem: "Growing Old" is a very logically structured poem; it's about
exactly what its title suggests. The first stanza lays out the
• Lines 1-35 theme clearly, in a didactic (lesson-like) style. The speaker
begins with three rhetorical questions
questions:
REPUTATION AND LEGACY
What is it to grow old?
"Growing Old" mentions only one apparent upside of Is it to lose the glory of the form,
old age—and even this turns out to be a bitterly The luster of the eye?
ironic drawback. According to the speaker, when we've grown Is it for beauty to forego her wreath?
so old that we feel like "hollow ghost[s]" of our former selves,
people around us start to praise our achievements. But this The speaker asks first what old age is like, and then whether it
praise is hypocritical and insincere, the speaker implies, fulfills popular stereotypes. Does old age mean losing the
because it's the opposite of what the same people used to say "glory" of one's "form," or body? Does it mean losing the "luster,"
about us. Thus, the speaker denies older people even the or gleam of alertness, in one's "eye"? (This second question
comfort of believing they will leave proud legacies behind. Even might also hint at loss of eyesight, since some vision problems,
the highest reputations, the poem suggests, are themselves such as cataracts, can cause the eyes to water or cloud over.)
"hollow," and liable to change from one moment to the next. Does it mean giving up the metaphorical victory "wreath" of
When we near the end of our lives, the speaker claims, "the "beauty," as other, younger people assume the honor of being
world" starts to shower us with praise that we can't truly enjoy. considered beautiful? In short: does old age mean that your
By the time we're near death, we're emotionally "frozen up," so physical grace, alertness (or eyesight), and sex appeal
we can't take real satisfaction from praise to begin with. Even if deteriorate?
we could, the praise signals a suspicious change in attitude. To These questions are followed by a blunt, ominous answer:
grow old, the speaker says, is "To hear the world applaud the "—Yes, but not this alone." In other words, all these clichés about
hollow ghost / Which blamed the living man." In other words, aging are true, but there's more to the story than that.
the same people who criticized us when we were at the height
The speaker seems to have some authority on the subject of
of our abilities turn around and applaud us when we're shells of
aging. In other words, he (the poem's final line suggests he's
our former selves. Their sudden praise is impossible to savor
male) feels qualified to address these common fears about
because it's impossible to take seriously.
growing older. Matthew Arnold was only in middle age when he
Broadly, then, the poem implies that reverence for the elderly is wrote the poem, so the speaker may or may not literally be the

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poet! Following the rhetorical questions of lines 6-10, which ask
whether age really weakens the body, the speaker responds
LINES 6-10 with an emphatic "Yes." All "this" deterioration "and more," he
Is it to feel our strength— says, will plague us in our senior years. But the problem is
Not our bloom only, but our strength—decay? worse than that, because there's no good news to balance out
Is it to feel each limb the bad. Old age, the speaker laments, is "not what in youth we
Grow stiffer, every function less exact, dreamed 'twould be!"—in other words, it doesn't live up to our
Each nerve more loosely strung? naive, youthful hopes. Notice that the "we" pronoun here
Lines 6-10 pose more rhetorical questions about aging. First, implies that the speaker's own "youth" is behind him; in other
the speaker asks whether age weakens the body: words, he's speaking from bitter experience.
Aging, the speaker warns, doesn't leave "our life / Mellowed
Is it to feel our strength— and softened as with sunset glow," nor does the whole process
Not our bloom only, but our strength—decay? feel like "A golden day’s decline." These lines point toward—and
mock—a set of sentimental clichés about aging, which persist to
The "bloom" here is the metaphorical freshness and vitality of this day. In Arnold's time, just as now, the years of old age and
youth. That will inevitably fade, of course, but the speaker retirement were sometimes called "golden years" or compared
questions whether physical "strength" will "decay" as well. to the "sunset" of one's life. The speaker insists that these
Notice how the two caesur caesuras
as in line 8, as well as the repetition popular metaphors are lies: old age isn't beautiful, pleasant, or
of "our strength," cause the sentence to slow and stagger a emotionally "Mellow[]" at all. In fact, the poem's final stanzas
little, as if it, too, were growing weaker. will portray it as a kind of nightmare.
The speaker wonders about other changes, too: will age make LINES 16-20
"each limb / Grow stiffer"? (That is, will it bring muscle stiffness
and joint pain?) Will age make "every" bodily and mental ’Tis not to see the world
"function less exact"? (Will it make us less physically adept and As from a height, with rapt prophetic eyes,
mentally acute?) Will "Each nerve" become "more loosely And heart profoundly stirred;
strung?" (Will aging wear on our nerves and/ or dull our And weep, and feel the fullness of the past,
perceptions?) The years that are no more.

Again, these questions aren't coming out of nowhere: they're Lines 16-10 continue to shoot down clichés about old age.
common conceptions about the aging process, problems that Through an extended simile
simile, the speaker roasts the idea that
many real-life older people have reported throughout the ages. aging offers some sort of superior vantage point on life:
The poem seems to be asking (rhetorically) not whether these
problems are possible but whether they're inevitable. The ’Tis not to see the world
following stanzas answer these questions, delivering no good As from a height, with rapt prophetic eyes,
news in the process. And heart profoundly stirred;
And weep, and feel the fullness of the past,
By now, the poem has established its form: unrhymed five-line The years that are no more.
stanzas (cinquains
cinquains) that alternate between shorter (trimeter)
and longer (pentameter) lines. This alternation makes the In other words, old age isn't like looking down on the rest of the
stanzas themselves seem to stagger a bit (much as caesuras "world" with the wisdom of a "prophet[]." It doesn't leave you
stagger the movement of individual lines, and much as age "rapt" (entranced) with "profound[]" insight or emotion. It
disrupts the body's movements). The lack of rhrhyme
yme gives the doesn't even leave you nostalgically "weep[ing]" for the "past,"
language a fairly plain surface, appropriate to a speaker who registering the "full[]" value and meaning of "The years that are
purports to tell the unvarnished truth. no more." (Notice how the anaphor
anaphoraa in these lines—the
LINES 11-15 repetition of "And [...] And [...] and"—evokes a surge of deep
emotion, even as the speaker claims it won't happen.)
Yes, this, and more; but not
Ah, ’tis not what in youth we dreamed ’twould be! Arnold isn't exactly the first to deny that old age gives us
’Tis not to have our life "prophetic" insight. Many other, previous literary works have
Mellowed and softened as with sunset glow, suggested that age and wisdom don't automatically go
A golden day’s decline. together. (Shakespeare's play King Lear is a famous example.)
But it is unusual to deny that old age makes us nostalgic.
In the third stanza
stanza, the speaker claims that all the negative
Justifying this counterintuitive claim requires further
rumors about aging are true—and then begins to shoot down
explanation, which the speaker provides in the following stanza
stanza.
all the positive ones.

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LINES 21-25 The metaphor in the following lines supports this reading:
It is to spend long days
And not once feel that we were ever young; Deep in our hidden heart
It is to add, immured Festers the dull remembrance of a change,
In the hot prison of the present, month But no emotion—none.
To month with weary pain.
The "change" from youth to age, in other words, becomes a
After two stanzas explaining what old age isn't like, lines 21-25 hazy memory ("dull remembrance"). That memory
begin to explain what it is like. Once again, anaphor
anaphoraa ("It is to [...] metaphorically "Festers," like an untreated wound, in our
It is to") lends a logical, list-like structure to the speaker's inmost "heart." On some "Deep" psychological level, the loss of
claims: youth and vitality causes continuing pain—perhaps even a
festering resentment toward the universe. But by the time this
It is to spend long days happens, our faculties have dulled to the point where we feel
And not once feel that we were ever young; no conscious "emotion" at all. There's a cruel iron
ironyy at work
It is to add, immured here: advanced old age not only deprives us of our looks,
In the hot prison of the present, month strength, mental faculties, etc., but it also deprives us even of
To month with weary pain. the capacity to mourn or rage at our loss.

According to the speaker, old age means going "days" at a time LINES 31-35
without "feel[ing]" that "we were ever young" at all. It's as It is—last stage of all—
though youth has become a vanished dream. The previous When we are frozen up within, and quite
stanza claimed that old people don't get tearfully nostalgic, and The phantom of ourselves,
these lines explain why: one can't be nostalgic for events that To hear the world applaud the hollow ghost
no longer seem real. Which blamed the living man.
But that's not all. The speaker elaborates: to grow old "is to add Lines 31-35 describe the final phase of old age: the "last stage
[...] month / To month with weary pain," while remaining of all." This phrase is a subtle Shakespearean allusion
allusion. In the
"immured" (confined) "In the hot prison of the present." classic "All the world's a stage" speech from Shakespeare's As
Translation: growing old means feeling trapped in a You Like It (c. 1603), the gloomy character Jaques also describes
metaphorical jail cell of fatigue and pain. One can spend months the final phase of life:
in that state, yet lose all sense of the passage of time, because
pain keeps the mind focused so sharply on the "present." No [...] Last scene of all
all,
wonder the elderly don't get bogged down in nostalgia That ends this strange eventful history,
(according to the speaker): they're too busy struggling to get Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
through each day. Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
LINES 26-30
Advanced old age, in other words, is a kind of terrible "second
It is to suffer this, child[hood]": a state of confusion, weakness, and radically
And feel but half, and feebly, what we feel. limited capabilities. Ultimately, it becomes a psychological
Deep in our hidden heart "oblivion"—an essentially unconscious state—followed by the
Festers the dull remembrance of a change, permanent oblivion of death.
But no emotion—none.
The last stanza of "Growing Old" describes a similar scenario.
Lines 26-30 pile on more bad news about growing old. According to the speaker, advanced old age turns us into a
Previously, the speaker has claimed that the "weary pain" of old mere "phantom of ourselves": a "hollow ghost" that has totally
age focuses the mind on the "present"—it doesn't leave room "frozen up within." These descriptions evoke a kind of death in
for weepy nostalgia. Now, the speaker adds a further twist: old life (though they could also hint at an afterlife scenario, such as
age means "suffer[ing] this" pain, yet feeling "but half, and a ghost looking down on the corpse they've left behind). In this
feebly, what we feel." In other words, it's a painful experience last stage of existence, the speaker claims, we witness a final,
rather than a nostalgic and pleasant one, but even the pain is bitter iron
ironyy. We hear "the world applaud the hollow ghost"
dulled due to bodily deterioration. The elderly suffer, but we've become, even though it "blamed," or criticized, "the living
they're only partially and weakly aware of their suffering. man" we used to be. In other words, we receive hypocritical
Here, the speaker seems to be describing advanced old age, praise from people who used to scorn us. Perhaps this praise
which can bring dementia and other forms of cognitive decline. carries a whiff of ageist condescension, as when young people

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applaud seniors just for continuing to live and function.
The male pronoun here ("man") might suggest that the speaker • Line 10: “Each”
is himself male, and is worrying about his own legacy (though • Line 11: “Yes,” “this,” “not”
writers in Arnold's time often used male pronouns to • Line 12: “’tis not”
generalize about humanity as a whole). Arnold would have had • Line 13: “’Tis not to”
some reason to fear this particular scenario, as he was a famous • Line 16: “’Tis not to”
• Line 18: “And”
but sometimes controversial writer and critic in his own day.
• Line 19: “And,” “and feel”
Perhaps he dreaded growing old and hearing cloying, insincere
• Line 21: “It is to”
tributes from people who had previously attacked him. In any
• Line 23: “It is to”
case, his poem warns that some version of this depressing
• Line 24: “month”
scenario awaits everyone who reaches old age.
• Line 25: “month”
• Line 26: “It is to”
• Line 27: “And feel,” “feel”
POETIC DEVICES • Line 31: “It is”
• Line 34: “To”
REPETITION
"Growing Old" is structured around repetition
repetition—specifically, a
RHETORICAL QUESTION
repetitive series of rhetorical questions and answers. In lines
1-10, the speaker asks about the nature of old age, using The first two stanzas of the poem consist almost entirely of
par
parallel
allel phrasing each time: rhetorical questions
questions. There are three in the first five lines, for
example:
What is it to grow old?
Is it to lose [...] What is it to grow old?
Is it for beauty [...] Is it to lose the glory of the form,
Is it to feel our strength [...] The luster of the eeyye?
Is it to feel each limb [...] Is it for beauty to forego her wreath?
—Yes, but not this alone.
The speaker then answers his own questions, again using
parallel or repetitive phrasing, as in lines 5 ("Y Yes
es, but not this The second stanza is all questions of a similar type:
alone") and 11 ("YYes
es, this
this, and more"). He repeatedly declares,
with the help of anaphor
anaphoraa, what aging isn't ("'Tis not to [...] 'Tis Is it to feel our strength—
not to") and what it is ("It is to [...] It is to"). The result is a highly Not our bloom only, but our strength—decay?
logical structure that suits the poem's didactic purpose. In Is it to feel each limb
other words, the poet/speaker is trying to teach the reader a Grow stiffer, every function less exact,
lesson, so he makes the lesson easy to follow and hammers Each nerve more loosely strung?
home his point.
The speaker goes on to answer these questions in the
He also uses other forms of repetition along the way, such as remainder of the poem. In other words, they are not
the diacope in lines 24-25: "month
month / To month with weary pain." expressions of curiosity, asked in order to obtain information.
Here, the repeated word helps capture the repetitiveness of They are a rhetorical device that allows him to make a point.
aging itself—the way old age brings a seemingly endless series They express conventional beliefs (clichés
clichés) about old age, which
of painful days. the speaker is eager to affirm—and go beyond.
Through these questions, the speaker builds up an element of
Where Repetition appears in the poem:
tension and suspense over the first two stanzas. (Some, but not
• Line 1: “is it to” all, of this tension is defused in line 5, which answers the
• Line 2: “Is it to,” “the,” “of the” questions in lines 1-4 but ominously adds that there's more to
• Line 3: “The,” “of the” the story.) Readers who hadn't previously feared aging might
• Line 4: “Is it” finish the first two stanzas with seeds of doubt planted in their
• Line 5: “Yes,” “this” minds—just as the poet intends.
• Line 6: “Is it to feel,” “our strength”
• Line 7: “our,” “our strength” Where Rhetorical Question appears in the poem:
• Line 8: “Is it to feel,” “each”

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ever young."
• Line 1: “What is it to grow old?”
• Lines 2-3: “Is it to lose the glory of the form, / The luster Where Allusion appears in the poem:
of the eye?”
• Line 4: “Is it for beauty to forego her wreath?” • Line 4: “Is it for beauty to forego her wreath?”
• Lines 6-7: “Is it to feel our strength— / Not our bloom • Line 31: “It is—last stage of all—”
only, but our strength—decay?”
• Lines 8-10: “Is it to feel each limb / Grow stiffer, every CAESURA
function less exact, / Each nerve more loosely strung?” The poem contains a number of caesur
caesuras
as, which, together with
its staggered line lengths (alternating trimeter and
ALLUSION pentameter), give it a slow and halting rhythm. This effect is
The allusions in "Growing Old" are subtle but noteworthy. First, most pronounced when the speaker is talking about a loss of
there's a minor historical/literary reference in line 4: "Is it for vitality, as in line 7:
beauty to forego her wreath?" This conventional metaphor
refers to the victory wreaths awarded in contests in ancient Is it to feel our strength—
Greece: olive wreaths for Olympic athletes, laurel wreaths for Not our bloom onlyonly,, but our strength—deca
strength—decayy?
the winners of poetry competitions, and so on. Here, it simply
implies that youthful "beauty" must give way, or forfeit its A similar example occurs in line 27:
honors, as old age makes the face and body homelier.
Later, the phrasing in line 31—"last stage of all"—echoes a And feel but half
half,, and feebly
feebly,, what we feel.
classic literary meditation on aging. In William Shakespeare's
comedy As Y You
ou Lik
Likee It
It, the melancholy Jaques character delivers Both passages refer to the physical decline that accompanies
his famous "All the world's a stage" speech, which divides the old age: the gradual loss of "strength" and "feel[ing]." It's fitting,
human lifespan into "seven ages" and ends as follows: then, that caesuras cause the lines themselves to stagger
"feebly" along, as if pausing frequently for breath.
[...] The sixth age shifts The pile-up of caesuras can also convey a hesitant tone
tone, as in
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon, lines 11-12:
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide Yes, this, and more; but not,
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, Ah, ’tis not what in youth we dreamed ’twould be!
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, Here, four caesuras and an enjambment cluster together in the
That ends this strange eventful history, space of eight words. The speaker seems hesitant to say what
Is second childishness and mere oblivion; he's thinking—perhaps because what he finally does say is
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. painful and sad. Old age, he admits, is not at all what "we
dreamed 'twould be!" Notice that this phrase ends with an
The lesson is clear: growing old means gradually letting go of exclamation point, adding to the sense that it's a pained
"everything," from one's robust "voice" and physique to one's outburst after some initial hedging.
"teeth" and sense of "taste." By subtly mimicking Shakespeare's
(or Jaques's) wording, Arnold signals that he, too, holds no Where Caesur
Caesuraa appears in the poem:
illusions about old age.
• Line 5: “Yes, but”
Finally, many critics believe that "Growing Old" is an implicit • Line 7: “only, but,” “strength—decay”
retort to Robert Browning's "Rabbi
Rabbi Ben Ezr
Ezraa," even though it • Line 9: “stiffer, every”
never explicitly alludes to the Browning poem. "Rabbi Ben • Line 11: “Yes, this, and more; but”
Ezra," published in 1864 (a few years before "Growing Old"), • Line 12: “Ah, ’tis”
famously begins: "Grow old along with me! / The best is yet to • Line 17: “height, with”
be." Browning's speaker claims that "the first" part of life was • Line 19: “weep, and”
"made" for the "last," and bravely accepts the end of the life • Line 23: “add, immured”
cycle: "Let age approve of youth, and death complete the • Line 24: “present, month”
same!" In the polar opposite spirit, Arnold's poem insists that • Line 27: “half, and feebly, what”
old age brings no consolations whatsoever, and gloomily • Line 30: “emotion—none”
remarks that if we grow old enough, we forget "that we were • Line 31: “is—last”

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• Line 32: “within, and” remembrance of a change,”

• Lines 32-33: “When we are frozen up within, and quite /
METAPHOR The phantom of ourselves,”
• Line 34: “the hollow ghost”
The poem uses a number of metaphors and similes to describe
the aging process. Several of these are conventional
metaphors, which the poet did not invent but has borrowed
and adapted. Line 3, for example, asks whether old age forces VOCABULARY
"beauty to forego her wreath." This phrase invokes the
The form (Line 2) - The body.
image—common in classic English poetry—of an ancient Greek
victory wreath. The speaker is really asking, then, whether Luster (Line 3) - Brightness. "The luster of the eye" means the
youthful beauty will have to give up its bragging rights as old gleam (of alertness, etc.) in the eye.
age sets in, and perhaps also whether it will wither like a wreath Forego (Line 4) - Give up; forfeit.
of flowers. (Line 7 picks up on this same conventional idea,
Wreath (Line 4) - Glory; honors (based on the conventional
suggesting that the "bloom" of youth will "decay.")
metaphor of a victory wreath, the kind awarded in ancient
Similarly, lines 13-15 play on cliché descriptions of old age as Greek competitions).
"the golden years" or the "sunset" of life:
Bloom (Line 7) - A conventional metaphor for the freshness of
youth.
’Tis not to have our life
Mellowed and softened as with sunset glow, Function (Line 9) - Here meaning, specifically, a bodily function
A golden day’s decline. or mental ability.
'Tis (Line 12, Line 13, Line 16) - Old-fashioned contraction of "it
Here, however, the speaker invokes these common metaphors is."
only to knock them down—to stress that they are "not" true. 'Twould (Line 12) - Old-fashioned contraction of "it would."
The speaker's metaphors become more harrowing as the poem Rapt (Line 17) - Entranced; full of wonder, bliss, etc.
goes on, driving home his argument that old age is a nightmare.
He claims that the pains of age leave us unable to focus on past Immured (Line 23) - Confined or imprisoned.
or future, confining us "In the hot prison of the present." In Festers (Line 29) - Rots; grows worse (like an infected wound).
other words, growing old feels like being locked in a hellish jail Blamed (Line 35) - Here meaning criticized in general (as
cell. He then claims that the memory of losing our youth opposed to blamed for something specific).
becomes a "dull remembrance" that "Festers" in our "heart."
The word "Festers" literally means to become infected;
figur
figurativ
atively
ely, it implies, here, that aging wounds our psyches and FORM, METER, & RHYME
fills us with a deep, rotten resentment. Finally, the speaker
claims that old age "fr[eezes] up" our emotions and turns us FORM
into a "phantom of ourselves." These last metaphors imply that "Growing Old" has an unusual form that combines two meters meters.
we experience a figurative death before our literal death: that Its five-line stanzas, or cinquains
cinquains, feature alternating lines of
extreme old age leaves us corpse-like and "ghost[ly]" while iambic trimeter (three-beat lines with a da-DUM DUM, da-DUM
DUM
we're still technically alive. rh
rhythm
ythm) and iambic pentameter (five-beat lines, same rhythm).
It has no rh
rhyme
yme scheme
scheme—no rh rhymes
ymes at all, in fact—so its style
Where Metaphor appears in the poem: sounds fairly plain, in keeping with its spirit of unvarnished
• Line 4: “Is it for beauty to forego her wreath?” truth-telling.
• Line 7: “Not our bloom only, but our strength—decay?” There's no name for this form; it's basically one that Arnold
• Line 10: “Each nerve more loosely strung?” devised himself for the purposes of the poem. It vaguely evokes
• Lines 13-15: “’Tis not to have our life / Mellowed and blank vverse
erse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), which features in
softened as with sunset glow, / A golden day’s decline.” many classic English poems and plays, except that the shorter,
• Lines 16-17: “’Tis not to see the world / As from a interspersed lines make up the majority of the poem. Perhaps
height,” the staggered alternation between long and short lines is
• Lines 23-24: “immured / In the hot prison of the meant to convey short-windedness, as if the aging speaker lacks
present,” the energy for a whole poem's worth of pentameter. The
• Lines 28-29: “Deep in our hidden heart / Festers the dull phrase "lose the glory of the form" (line 2) could also be a clue.

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Perhaps this weary speaker, rather than taking on any of the (That's why he generalizes his experience, using first-person
conventional forms of the English tradition, is making do with a plural pronouns like "we" and "our" rather than singular
less glorious substitute. pronouns like "I" and "my.") In line 12, for example, he declares
that old age is "not what in youth we dreamed 'twould be!" He
METER may even have reached the age where he no longer "feel[s]"
"Growing Old" combines two meters
meters. It alternates between that he was "ever young" (line 22).
lines of iambic trimeter (three-beat lines that generally follow a But the poem is at least partly a work of imagination, as
da-DUM
DUM, da-DUMDUM rhythm) and iambic pentameter (five-beat opposed to firsthand testimony. The final stanza describes
lines that follow the same rhythm). One can hear this pattern growing so old that "we" no longer feel like a "living man," but
clearly in lines 16-20, for example: rather a "hollow ghost." This conjures up the image of someone
at death's door—or someone who's dead already! So while the
’Tis not | to see | the world speaker may voice Arnold's own disgust with aging, fears about
As from | a height
height, | with rapt | prophet
phet- | ic eyes
es, his legacy (as a writer whom "the world" might "applaud" only
And heart | profound
found- | ly stirred
stirred; briefly), etc., the poem ultimately departs from his literal
And weep
weep, | and feel | the full
full- | ness of | the past
past, experience.
The years | that are | no more
more.

Not all the lines are so rhythmically predictable; like most SETTING
metrical poems, this one varies the meter sometimes for
expressive effect. For instance, line 5 starts with a trochee (a "Growing Old" doesn't have a defined setting
setting. It's a meditative
metrical foot with a DUM
DUM-da rhythm) rather than an iamb poem about old age in general rather than a description of a
(da-DUM
DUM): particular person's old age. The absence of setting detail
(physical, temporal, or geographical) gives the poem a universal
—Y
Yes
es, but | not this | alone
lone. quality: it could be describing old age for anyone, anywhere, at
any time.
This has the effect of emphasizing "Yes," which is the poem's The speaker does mention that old age locks people,
first confirmation that old age is no fun. metaphorically
metaphorically, in "the hot prison of the present." In other
words, the pain and confusion of growing old gradually make
RHYME SCHEME people forget about both the past and the future. So this might
The poem has no rh rhyme
yme scheme or rh rhyming
yming of any kind. In be another reason the poem withholds all setting detail: in
English poetry, the use of meter without rhyme is relatively order to mimic the sense of confinement and disorientation
uncommon, outside of blank vverse erse and old-fashioned accentual some elderly people feel.
verse. ("Growing Old" qualifies as neither.) The absence of
rhyme here makes the language sound stark and unadorned, as
if the poet has little interest in appealing to the reader's ear. In CONTEXT
other words, it fits the poem's mission: to tell blunt, harsh
truths about aging. LITERARY CONTEXT
Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) was one of the preeminent
poets and critics of England's Victorian era. "Growing Old"
SPEAKER appears in his 1867 collection New Poems, which also includes
Matthew Arnold was only in his early- to mid-40s when he his famous "Do
Dovver Beach
Beach." Like "Dover Beach," it offers a
wrote "Growing Old," so it's fair to wonder whether the bitterly pessimistic view of life, which it refuses to sugarcoat in
speaker is supposed to be the poet himself. The answer is: any way.
maybe! Average lifespans were shorter in the 1800s than they Many critics have read "Growing Old" as a retort to another
are now, and Arnold himself lived only to age 65. The poem famous Victorian poet (and poem). Robert Browning's popular
might be expressing Arnold's experience of older age—or what dramatic monologue "Rabbi Ben Ezra" (1864), published a few
he considered older age—but it might also be expressing his years before Arnold's poem, begins with the well-known
fears about aging, via a speaker who's supposed to be genuinely couplet
couplet: "Grow old along with me! / The best is yet to be [...]"
elderly. Browning's speaker paints a relatively sunny portrait of old age,
Clearly, the speaker (a "man," as the final line suggests) is past which he suggests might bring us "peace at last!" Arnold's
his prime. He speaks with the authority of someone who's poem seeks to crush that notion altogether.
"grow[n] old" himself and believes his experience is typical. The final stanza of "Growing Old"—particularly the phrase "last

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stage of all"—also echoes the famous "All the world's a stage" phony "applau[se]" alike, suggests that he feared "the world"
soliloquy from Shakespeare's play As You Like It (c. 1603). This would be unkind to his reputation.
speech, delivered by the melancholy character Jaques, lists the
various stages (or "ages") of man's life. After describing some of
the ravages of old age, the speech ends: MORE RESOUR
RESOURCES
CES
[...] Last scene of all, EXTERNAL RESOURCES
That ends this strange eventful history, • The PPoet's
oet's Life and W
Work
ork — Read a short biography of
Is second childishness and mere oblivion; Matthew Arnold at the Poetry Foundation.
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. (https:/
(https://www
/www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/matthew-
.poetryfoundation.org/poets/matthew-
arnold)
In the same melancholy spirit, Arnold warns that old age
• Arnold and the Victorian ErEraa — Read an introduction to
snatches away all our joys and comforts. the literary and historical period with which Arnold is
In its pessimism and spiritual doubt, Arnold's poetry is closely associated. (https:/
(https://www
/www.poetryfoundation.org/
.poetryfoundation.org/
sometimes considered a forerunner of the 20th-century collections/153447/an-introduction-to-the-victorian-er
collections/153447/an-introduction-to-the-victorian-era) a)
modernist and existentialist movements. Among Victorian
• The PPoem
oem Aloud — Listen to a reading of "Growing Old."
poets, Thomas Hardy probably comes closest to expressing a
(https:/
(https://www
/www..youtube.com/watch?v=b
outube.com/watch?v=bVjC1xMALZg)
VjC1xMALZg)
similar worldview. Hardy, too, examines the erosion of faith in a
world dominated by science and provides a largely unconsoling • More About the PPoet
oet — More information about, and
view of life and death. poems by, Arnold at Poets.org. (https:/
(https:///poets.org/poet/
matthew-arnold)
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
• The PPoem
oem in Conte
Contextxt — Read "Growing Old" in an 1867
The 19th century, which encompassed most of the UK's
edition of Arnold's poems. (https:/
(https:///archiv
archive.org/details/
e.org/details/
Victorian era (1837-1901), profoundly changed the way
newpoems00arno/page/142/mode/2up
newpoems00arno/page/142/mode/2up))
humanity saw its place in the world. In the 1830s, for example,
Charles Lyell's innovations in the study of geology cast serious LITCHARTS ON OTHER MATTHEW ARNOLD
doubt on the biblical account of the world's creation. During POEMS
the early decades of the century, fossil collector Mary Anning
• Do
Dovver Beach
discovered prehistoric skeletons in the beach areas of southern
England, further upending conventional accounts of the world's
history. Advances in evolutionary biology, including Charles HOW T
TO
O CITE
Darwin's monumental 1859 study On the Origin of Species,
challenged the idea that humanity occupies the center of a
divinely created universe. MLA
In short, Matthew Arnold was writing in a time of large-scale Allen, Austin. "Growing Old." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 10 Mar
readjustment and anxiety. "Growing Old" doesn't refer to any 2023. Web. 10 Apr 2023.
of these historical and scientific developments, or to any topical CHICAGO MANUAL
events at all. But the poem's anxious pessimism may partly
Allen, Austin. "Growing Old." LitCharts LLC, March 10, 2023.
reflect the spirit of its times. Though only in his 40s, Arnold
Retrieved April 10, 2023. https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/
expected the rest of his life to be one long decline—and not the
matthew-arnold/growing-old.
"golden" kind. He ranked among the literary giants of his age,
but this poem, with its complaints about excessive "blame" and

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