ShmoopTube

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Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Aging. The preferred method of gradually

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approaching the cold, terrifying grip of death.

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Which of the following most closely matches the speaker's feelings about aging?

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And here are the potential answers...

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Who likes aging, right? The gray hair, the liver spots, the adult diapers... it's no walk in the park.

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Although, when you really get up there in years... you do get to take more walks in the park.

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But never mind how we feel about it... how does the speaker feel about it?

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Does he feel that, because he is too old to be a knight, he is too old to be of any use?

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Nah... the fact that he offers to be the queen's beadsman shows that he thinks he's one old

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dog who's got room for a new trick... Does he believe that growing older is accompanied

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by endless physical and mental trials?

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What? No... don't put words in the poor guy's mouth.

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He recognizes that he's getting older, and shriveling up like a raisin... but he doesn't

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talk about these changes as being "trials." Is he looking forward to the day when his

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wisdom will be respected?

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Nope. For someone who seems solely concerned about making the queen happy, he probably

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isn't quite so... full of himself.

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He'd probably be just fine if no one ever recognized his genius.

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Does he feel that, though he is too old to serve at court, he can still serve in other ways?

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On the nose-y. That's exactly what he says in the final couplet of the poem.

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Just to be sure... does he feel he now must spend all his time in prayer as he prepares for death?

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Once again... prayer? Yes. For himself... not so much.

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Our answer is D.

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As in... "Death." The final stage of aging.

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