Byron and Shelley ''GROWING OLD''  ( BBC - Byron )
Channel: SK T
Date: 2009-11-01

Growing Old - Lord Byron

But now at thirty years my hair is grey— 

     (I wonder what it will be like at forty ? 

I thought of a peruke the other day—) 

     My heart is not much greener ; and, in short, I 

Have squandered my whole summer while ’twas May, 

     And feel no more the spirit to retort ; I 

Have spent my life, both interest and principal, 

And deem not, what I deemed, my soul invincible. 
   //                                                        // 
What is the end of Fame ? ’tis but to fill 

     A certain portion of uncertain paper : 

Some liken it to climbing up a hill, 

     Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour ; 

For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill, 

     And bards burn what they call their ‘midnight taper’, 

To have, when the original is dust, 

A name, a wretched picture and worse bust.