Analysis of Changed

1     I know not why my soul is rack'd:
2         Why I ne'er smile as was my wont:
3     I only know that, as a fact,
4             I don't.
5     I used to roam o'er glen and glade
6         Buoyant and blithe as other folk:
7     And not unfrequently I made
8             A joke.

9     A minstrel's fire within me burn'd.
10       I'd sing, as one whose heart must break,
11   Lay upon lay: I nearly learn'd
12           To shake.
13   All day I sang; of love, of fame,
14       Of fights our fathers fought of yore,
15   Until the thing almost became
16           A bore.

17   I cannot sing the old songs now!
18       It is not that I deem then low;
19  'Tis that I can't remember how
20           They go.
21   I could not range the hills till high
22       Above me stood the summer moon:
23   And as to dancing, I could fly
24           As soon.

25   The sports, to which with boyish glee
26       I sprang erewhile, attract no more;
27   Although I am but sixty-three
28           Or four.
29   Nay, worse than that, I've seem'd of late
30       To shrink from happy boyhood -- boys
31   Have grown so noisy, and I hate
32           A noise.

33   They fright me, when the beech is green,
34       By swarming up its stem for eggs:
35   They drive their horrid hoops between
36           My legs: --
37   It's idle to repine, I know;
38       I'll tell you what I'll do instead:
39   I'll drink my arrowroot, and go
40           To bed.