The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner [YEATS poem set to music]
Channel: tobydarling
Date: 29/08/2015

Here is a poem by WB Yeats which I have set to music.

THE LAMENTATION OF THE OLD PENSIONER

by: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

G#m  F#
ALTHOUGH I shelter from the rain
C#m
Under a broken tree
C#m B
My chair was nearest to the fire
F#m
In every company
B F#m
That talked of love or politics,
G#m A
Ere Time transfigured me.
 
Though lads are making pikes again
For some conspiracy,
And crazy rascals rage their fill
At human tyranny,
My contemplations are of Time
That has transfigured me.
 
Bm F#m
There's not a woman turns her face
D A
Upon a broken tree,
D A
And yet the beauties that I loved
Bm
Are in my memory;
F#m A B
I spit into the face of Time
C#7 F#m A B C#7
That has transfigured me.


All the pictures are from the National Gallery of Ireland.