Old Age Sticks

Old Age Sticks

E.E. Cummings

old age sticks 

up Keep

off

signs)&

youth yanks them down(old

age

cries No

Tres)&(pas)

youth laughs

(sing

old age

scolds Forbid

den

Stop

Must

n't Don't

&)youth goes

right on

gr

owing old.

"Old Age Sticks" is about the cycle of growing up, and the relationship between the young and the old. The old character in the poem respects property, and feels entitled to it. He’s been around long enough to want an object to represent his work on earth. The youth haven’t begun to understand what it truly means to “own” something, as they haven’t worked a day in their life. This is represented in the argument between the old men and the youth. The old man is alone, while the youth are numerous. This is supposed to represent how rare maturity is. There’s more time for ignorance to be “killed off” by corruptive experience. Time brings knowledge, but learning is often a lonely road. To me, the first line of the poem is peculiar, because it gives an image of old sticks, as in branches. Branches are detached pieces of wood that once were connected to a tree. They are detached from their “mother” and are alone. It could also mean that this loneliness the old man endures exists far beyond the feeling of being connected to a family tree. The youth still have the ability to laugh and sing while the old man appears to be upset, as he yells and scolds. Corruption that age and experience bring will eventually lose childlike characteristics such as outward displays of innocent joy. The old man tries to warn the young that they must respect the idea of property. Instead, they ignore him and go right on “growing old”. E.E. Cummings uses word play through the format of his poems. He means that the young go on growing and owing old. It’s cyclical. The first and last words of the poem are “old”. I believe this is meant to emphasize the cycle of youth turning old, and scolding their “past” selves. It also shows how inevitable growing up is. No matter how much the old man yells and explains, the youth are bound to repeat the mistakes of the old man’s past. It’s strange that Cummings splits up the word “trespassing”. I did look up the two words, and they are French. Tres translates to “very” or “a lot” in French. Pas means “step”. It’s a dance, but another rare use is “the right to precede”. Using these translations, we could say that the old man cries “No a lot step”. He doesn’t want the youth to take a large step into maturity. He wants them to relish their youth, instead children are often eager to grow up. It isn’t until they are mature that they realize there were perks to being young that they didn’t notice before. Now that I think about it, the trespassing sign may not mean that the old man is holding possession over the land. He’s occupies it, but doesn’t want the youth to tread into his territory. He doesn’t want the youth to become like him. It’s a more depressing look at old age. The old man doesn’t seem to be enjoying himself. His experience and knowledge wasn’t worth his happiness. I can’t seem to shake the cliched saying “ignorance is bliss”. I suppose many sayings are cliched because they’re true.