The Old Man

James Stephens 1882 (Dublin) – 1950



An old man sat beneath a tree
  Alone;
So still was he
  That, if he had been carved in stone,
He could not be
  More quiet or more cold:
He was an ancient man
  More than
A thousand ages old.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

12 sec read
133

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABACDDC
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 192
Words 42
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 9

James Stephens

James Stephens was an Irish Republican and the founding member of an originally unnamed revolutionary organisation in Dublin on 17 March 1858, later to become known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood, also referred to as the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood by contemporaries. more…

All James Stephens poems | James Stephens Books

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