Why Should Not Old Men Be Mad?William Butler Yeats WHY should not old men be mad?Some have known a likely ladThat had a sound fly-fisher's wristTurn to a drunken journalist;A girl that knew all Dante onceLive to bear children to a dunce;A Helen of social welfare dream,Climb on a wagonette to scream.Some think it a matter of course that chanceShould starve good men and bad advance,That if their neighbours figured plain,As though upon a lighted screen,No single story would they findOf an unbroken happy mind,A finish worthy of the start.Young men know nothing of this sort,Observant old men know it well;And when they know what old books tellAnd that no better can be had,Know why an old man should be mad. - from On The Boiler