Critical Analysis on "Youth and Age" by S.T. Coleridge

The complete poem "Youth and Age" by Coleridge was published in 1834. "Youth and Age" is a testimony of an old man when his days are numbered. It deals with the theme of time’s passage and its effect on man. 

It is an autobiographical poem with powerful imagery.

The rhythm of the poem is iambic. There are four accents in each line. The fifth line of every stanza consists of a pair of iambic and its repetition forms, the first half of the following line.

In the first part of the poem, the speaker comments on the freedom and abandonment that characterize his early years when he was not concerned with the worries of life. He could move around freely and indulge in activities that hardly involved serious thought and felt happy about the kind of work he did.

As a sensitive young man, he felt the charm of natural objects and looked forward with a zest of youth. Metaphorically, he calls youth, a place of poetry which like a child’s play or air develops wonders.  He provokes youth as a part of life full of longings.

In the second stanza, a sense of regret is introduced as the speaker looks back at the past and he realizes that the blissful days that he has left behind cannot be lived again. There is a wistfulness in the lives the poet recalls the days of his youth:

“Life went a- maying

With nature, Hope, and Poesy,

When I was young!”

The feeling of grief finds an effective expression in the following lines;

When I was young? - Ah, woeful when!

Ah! For the change’ twixt Now and Then!

Ere I was old? Ah, woeful Ere,

Which tells me, youth’s no longer here?

The poet, however, finds some comfort in the thought that his youth may not have left him. Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Happiness or unhappiness results from the way we look at things and so the poet decides to think that he is still young.

He hints at the problems accompanying age, of which physical troubles are the most worrisome. “This body that does me grievous wrong.” The second stanza ends with the speaker reminiscing about the days when he lived life to the fullest. It is now no longer possible for the speaker to look at life as he did during his youth when he lived life according to whims and did not fear anything. His youthful days were pleasant because he was privileged to experience friendship, love and liberty.

The poet cannot forget his youthful days when ‘Life went amazing with nature, Hope, Poesy! He says all these things in the manner of the philosopher. So he consoles himself with the idea

“Life is but thought; so think I will

That youth and I are housemates still.”

The reminder that comes from the word ‘ere’ is significant because it makes the poet aware that he is no longer young. He calls his youth a ‘masker’ who still wears a mask and is acting as an actor with its youthful zeal and spirit being a part and parcel of his life. The image of an unwanted guest overstaying is apt here as it shows that there is a specific time- frame for everything, including Youth and Age.

There is exquisite beauty in the line: “Dew- drops are the gems of morning” and an exquisite pathos in the very next line; “But the tears of mournful eve.” Dew- drops are like gems in the morning but like tears (of sorrow) in the evening.

In the morning, dew drops look like gems and are a source of much pleasure, the dewdrops are beautiful, like gems. But in the evening, dew-drops are like the tears of mourning because the day is about to come to an end. Dew-drops show the morning while tears are the messenger of the evening. 

Similarly in youth, which is the morning of life, a man has a hope to make himself happy. But in old age, which is the evening of human life, there is no hope. The absence of hope in old age makes a man miserable. Hope is the source of life. It springs eternally in the human heart. Hope cheers a person in youth but deserts him in old age. Life becomes a warning when there is no hope. In old age, there is no hope and so grieve and life becomes a misery. One has to get ready to bid goodbye to life. He must be ready to depart from the world. 

The poet makes a final comparison of life in old age to an unwanted guest who has overstayed.

“Like some poor nigh-related guest, that may not be rudely dismist; yet hath outstay ‘d his welcome while, and tells the best without the smile.”

 A hopeless old age is compared to a poor and closely related guest who has outstayed his welcome as a guest. The nearest of death makes an old man unhappy. This idea is expressed by the poet using an appropriate metaphor. Suppose that a close but poor relative comes to stay with us. We shall be hospitable to him at the beginning of his stay. But after a time we begin to feel tired of him and would like him to go away. The poor relative also begins to perceive that change in our attitude towards him. He now knows that he has outstayed his welcome. We cannot ask him to go away, but we are certainly cold towards him. He too realizes this and therefore, even when he makes a joke, he is hardly able to smile. He knows that he has practically become unwanted. Yet, he cannot be rudely asked to depart. 

The image of an unwanted guest overstaying is apt as it shows that there is a specific time frame for everything.

The ironic tone present in the second half of the poem is designed to situate the enthusiasm with youth in the contrast between youth and age is portrayed in a poignant yet effective manner.