Beautiful Old Age

“Beautiful Old Age” is a free verse poem written by D.H. Lawrence about the beauty and satisfaction of growing old. The author’s theme describes old age as something peaceful, satisfying, and wonderful. Lawrence uses apples as imagery and peaceful descriptions through the use of color and the images of the outdoors throughout the poem to explain how he believes old age is beautiful. He provides the reader with a beautiful depiction of how growing old age should be; however, his depiction does not allow for an imperfect world and the harsh realities of people growing old in 2013. The author first suggests that experience comes with age, which provides peace. This is much un-like the restlessness of one’s youthful days. Lawrence talks about “peace that comes of experience and wrinkled ripe fulfillment.” In this quote, “wrinkled ripe fulfillment,” wrinkled reminds the reader of an old person’s wrinkles, but not negatively. The reader imagines each wrinkle as a road of life connecting to a highway which overall forms the person’s life, each wrinkle resembling experience and a road to higher wisdom. Ripe suggests the prime of a person’s life (fruit at the perfect time to eat). What the author describes as beautiful is not related to how a person looks when they are old, but how they feel about themselves and the life they have lived. The quote, “ The wrinkled smile of completeness that follows a life lived undaunted and unsoured with accepted lies,” brings images of a perfect and ripe piece of fruit. This quote suggests again that beauty is achieved through accepting one’s mistakes in life and making peace with those mistakes. Through this acceptance, honesty takes place of lies, and a person’s life feels complete. Lawrence uses fruit again as imagery with the quote, “Soothing, old people should be, like apples when one is tired of love.” The beauty here is that old people are content with their lives. They are not looking for love