Explore "Brittle Bones" by Robert Graves on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Though I am an old man
With my bones very brittle,
Though I am a poor old man / Worth very little, / Yet I suck at my long pipe / At peace in the sun, / I do not fret nor much regret / That my work is done.
If I were a young man / With my bones full of marrow, / Oh, if I were a bold young man / Straight as an arrow, / And if I had the same years / To live once again, / I would not change their simple range / Of laughter and pain.
If I were a young man / And young was my Lily, / A smart girl, a bold young man, / Both of us silly. / And though from time before I knew / She'd stab me with pain, / Though well I knew she'd not be true, / I'd love her again.
If I were a young man / With a brisk, healthy body, / Oh, if I were a bold young man / With love of rum toddy, / Though I knew that I was spiting / My old age with pain, / My happy lip would touch and sip / Again and again.
If I were a young man / With my bones full of marrow, / Oh, if I were a bold young man / Straight as an arrow, / I'd store up no virtue / For Heaven's distant plain, / I'd live at ease as I did please / And sin once again.