Boys to Men

Image from NCSU Libraries

TO CRITICS

When I was seventeen I heard
From each censorious tongue,
“I’d not do that if I were you;
You see you’re rather young.”

Now that I number forty years,
I’m quite as often told
Of this or that I shouldn’t do
Because I’m quite too old.

O carping world! If there’s an age
Where youth and manhood keep
An equal poise, alas! I must
Have passed it in my sleep.

— Walter Learned.

The Oshkosh Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) Sep 25, 1935

Tags: 1935, Boys, Humor, Men, Poetry, Walter Learned