The Old Age of Queen Maeve
In the poem “The Old Age of Queen Maeve” the titular queen is up at night, unable to sleep and nostalgically thinking back to her glory days when she receives an unexpected visit.
The first stanza establishes that Queen Maeve is awake at night while the rest of her court sleeps. She walks through her palace, now an old woman, remembering the days when she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Eventually, she hears the familiar sounds of the Sidhe, magical beings that used to come to give her advice. The Sidhe appear to have put a sleeping spell on the rest of the court as no one but Maeve can hear them and possess the sleeping body of the porter to communicate. However, when Maeve reaches the porter’s lodge and wakes him up to receive the message, the Sidhe have gone.
In the third stanza Maeve has continued her stroll through her palace and reaches her bedroom where she watches her husband sleep. While Maeve contemplates that he too has aged from his handsome youth, the Sidhe possess the body of her husband. He finally speaks to her, revealing himself to be Aengus, a Sidhe king who, to her astonishment, asks Maeve for her help in winning the woman he has fallen in love with. She enthusiastically agrees and, after the Sidhe has left her, happily runs to her grandchildren to tell them of the task at hand. They dutifully begin but are at some point interrupted by scary looking figures. Maeve encourages them to continue until the two lovers are finally united and thank Maeve with all of their heart.
The last two stanzas consist of the speaker addressing an unidentified “you”. The speaker compares the aging Queen Maeve to “you” and urges them to take the tale to heart.
The Folly of Being Comforted
In first part of the poem “The Folly of Being Comforted” a friend, known for being extremely kind, gently points out to the speaker that his beloved is beginning to show signs of aging, such as grey hair. The friend continues to comfort the speaker, urging him to let time heal the wound of such a loss. In the second part of the poem the speaker reflects about these words and reveals that he loves his beloved even more the older she turns as her internal fire only ever gets stronger. He doesn’t care about her fading external beauty and the poem closes with him thinking how silly it is to comfort him about such a thing.
The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water
In the poem “The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water” the speaker notices a group of very old men, sitting by the water. The speaker thinks about their aged bodies, unflatteringly comparing them to parts of nature as he listens to the men complain about fading beauty and how death is slowly taking them one by one.
