I Dreamed That I Was Old
I dreamed that I was old: in stale declension
Fallen from my prime, when company
Was mine, cat-nimbleness, and green invention,
Before time took my leafy hours away.
My wisdom, ripe with body’s ruin, found
Itself tart recompense for what was lost
In false exchange: since wisdom in the ground
Has no apocalypse or pentecost.
I wept for my youth, sweet passionate young thought,
And cozy women dead that by my side
Once lay: I wept with bitter longing, not
Remembering how in my youth I cried.
Copyright Credit: "I Dreamed That I Was Old". Copyright 1930 by Stanley Kunitz, from THE COLLECTED POEMS by Stanley Kunitz. Used by permission of the author and W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Source: The Collected Poems (W. W. Norton and Company Inc., 1930)