The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Yeats, William Butler. “Lamentation of the Old Pensioner.” PoetryArchive, https://www.poetry-archive.com/y/the_lamentation_of_the_old_pensioner.html.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

Written in the later years of the poet’s life, this poem revisits Yeats’ earlier “The Old Pensioner,” originally published in 1890. While the the earlier version was a fictitious account of a man nearing the end of his life, “Lamentation” brought in the poet’s own life experience. The poem follows a speaker who mourns his lost youth and examines the way he has been changed by the passage of time.