Middle Age

The sins of Youth are hardly sins,

So frank they are and free.

‘T is but when Middle-age begins

We need morality.

Ah, pause and weigh this bitter truth:

That Middle-age, grown cold,

No comprehension has of Youth,

No pity for the Old.

Youth, with his half-divine mistakes,

She never can forgive,

So much she hates his charm which makes

Worth while the life we live.

She scorns Old Age, whose tolerance

And calm, well-balanced mind

(Knowing how crime is born of chance)

Can pardon all mankind.

Yet she, alas! has all the power

Of strength and place and gold,

Man’s every act, through every hour,

Is by her laws controlled.

All things she grasps with sordid hands

And weighs in tarnished scales.

She neither feels, nor understands,

And yet her will prevails!

Cold-blooded vice and careful sin,

Gold-lust, blind selfishness,–

The shortest, cheapest way to win

Some, worse than cheap, success.

Such are her attributes and aims,

Yet meekly we obey,

While she to guide and order claims

All issues of the day.

You seek for honour, friendship, truth?

Let Middle-age be banned!

Go, for warm-hearted acts, to Youth;

To Age,–to understand!

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External links

Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus

Talking Writing Monster’s Page –

Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh

Poems in English 

• For What As Easy by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Five Songs – II by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Fish in the Unruffled Lakes by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Eyes Look Into The Well by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Eyes Look Into The Well by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Edward Lear by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Doggerel by a Senior Citizen by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Deftly, Admiral, Cast Your Fly by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Two Songs for Hedli Anderson by W. H. Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• The Shield of Achilles by W. H. Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• The More Loving One by W. H. Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• The Fall of Rome by W. H. Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• September 1, 1939 by W. H. Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• On the Circuit by W. H. Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• In Memory of W. B. Yeats by W. H. Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• In Memory of Sigmund Freud by W. H. Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• If I could tell you by W. H. Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• For Friends Only by W. H. Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Epitaph on a Tyrant by W. H. Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Death’s Echo by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)

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Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)

Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.

Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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