WHY SHOULD NOT OLD MEN BE MAD?
 
 WHY should not old men be mad?
 Some have known a likely lad
 That had a sound fly-fisher's wrist
 Turn to a drunken journalist;
 A girl that knew all Dante once
 Live 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 chance
 Should starve good men and bad advance,
 That if their neighbours figured plain,
 As though upon a lighted screen,
 No single story would they find
 Of 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 tell
 And that no better can be had,
 Know why an old man should be mad.