Retirement Poems

Retirement Poems

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clasp its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress.
- William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium

When I can look Life in the eyes,
Grown calm and very coldly wise,
Life will have given me the Truth,
And taken in exchange - my youth.
- Sara Teasdale

Another Retirement Poem

TERMINUS
Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is time to be old,
To take in sail:--
The god of bounds,
Who sets to seas a shore,
Came to me in his fatal round,
And said: 'No more!
No farther spread
Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy root.
Fancy departs: no more invent,
Contract thy firmament
To compass of a tent.
There's not enough for this and that,
Make thy option which of two;
Economize the failing river,
Not the less revere the Giver,
Leave the many and hold the few.

As the bird trims her to the gale,
I trim myself to the storm of time,
I man the rudder, reef the sail,
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime:
'Lowly faithful, banish fear,
Right onward drive unharmed;
The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
And every wave is charmed.'

Famous Retirement Poems

"Warning, When I Am An Old Woman, I Shall Wear Purple" has become a global phenomenon! Elizabeth Lucas has published her calligraphic
version of the poem nationally since 1984.

This poem that speaks of growing old in a wonderfully outrageous style was written in 1961 by Jenny Joseph who lives in Minchinhampton, England.

The poem is popularly known by many titles including, of course, the actual title "Warning", as well as by "When I Am An Old Woman", "The Purple Poem", "Old Woman", "I Shall Wear Purple", simply "Purple" and by other affectionate names.

IN MEMORIAM by Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

O-NIGHT the winds begin to rise
And roar from yonder dropping day;
The last red leaf is whirl'd away,
The rooks are blown about the skies;

The forest crack'd, the waters curl'd,
The cattle huddled on the lea;
And wildly dash'd on tower and tree
The sunbeam strikes along the world:

And but for fancies, which aver
That all thy motions gently pass
Athwart a plane of molten glass,
I scarce could brook the strain and stir

That makes the barren branches loud;
And but for fear it is not so,
The wild unrest that lives in woe
Would dote and pore on yonder cloud

That rises upward always higher,
And onward drags a laboring breast,
And topples round the dreary west,
A looming bastion fringed with fire.

XXX

With trembling fingers did we weave
The holly round the Christmas hearth;
A rainy cloud possess'd the earth,
and sadly fell on Christmas-eve.

At our old pastimes in the hall
We gamboll's, making vain pretence
Of gladness, with an awful sense
Of one mute Shadow watching all.

We paused: the winds were in the beech:
We heard them sweep the winter land;
And in a circle hand-in-hand
Sat silent, looking each at each.

Then echo-like our voices rang;
We sung, tho' every eye was dim,
A merry song we sang to him
Last year; impetuously we sang.

We ceased; a gentler feeling crept
Upon us: surely rest is meet.
'They rest,' we said, 'their sleep is sweet,'
And silence follow'd, and we wept.

Our voices took a higher range;
Once more we sang: 'They do not die
Nor lose their mortal sympathy,
Nor change to us, altho' they change;

'Rapt from the fickle and the frail
With gather'd power, yet the same,
Pierces the keen seraphic flame
From orb to orb, from veil to veil.'

Rise, happy morn, rise, holy morn,
Draw forth the cheerful day from night:
O Father, touch the east, and light
The light that shone when Hope was born.

CXXXI

O living will that shall endure
When all that seems shall suffer shock,
Rise in the spiritual rock,
Flow thro' our deeds and make them pure,

That we may lift from out of dust
A voice as unto him that hears,
A cry above the conquer'd years
To one that with us works, and trust,

With faith that comes of self-control,
The truths that never can be proved
Until we close with all we loved,
And all we flow from, soul to soul.

Don't waste too much time and energy worrying about getting older.
The point is that if you spend a lot of time preparing for old age,
old age will come a lot sooner than you would like. Most centurians
don't know why they have lived so long and don't care.

In response to why she's lived so long, 100-year-old Hazel Etherington of Lynchburg, Virginia replied, "I'm not sure. I think maybe it's the pacemaker."

Here are some more retirement quotes from The Retirement Quotes Cafe:

Am I older than dirt? I knew dirt when it was still a rock!
- Unknown wise person

Now that I'm older I thought it was great that I seemed to have more
patience. Turns out I just don't give a shit.
- Unknown wise person

For a happy day, look for something bright and beautiful in nature.
Listen for a beautiful sound, speak a kind word to some person, and
do something nice for someone without their knowledge.
- Unknown 85-year-old Wise Retired Person

We've entered a new age of old age. The possibility of experiencing positive,
vital aging lasting into our tenth decade of life is one of the new
realities of the 21st century.
- James Firman, Ed.D., President and CEO of NCOA

For More Great Retirement Quotations See

The RETIREMENT QUOTES CAFE

Age
Most explicit--
the sense of trap

as a narrowing
cone one's got

stuck into and
any movement

forward simply
wedges once more--

but where
or quite when,

even with whom,
since now there is no one

quite with you--Quite? Quiet?
English expression: Quait?

Language of singular
impedance? A dance? An

involuntary gesture to
others not there? What's

wrong here? How
reach out to the

other side all
others live on as

now you see the
two doctors, behind

you, in mind's eye,
probe into your anus,

or ass, or bottom,
behind you, the roto-

rooter-like device
sees all up, concludes

"like a worn-out inner tube,"
"old," prose prolapsed, person's

problems won't do, must
cut into, cut out . . .

The world is a round but
diminishing ball, a spherical

ice cube, a dusty
joke, a fading,

faint echo of its
former self but remembers,

sometimes, its past, sees
friends, places, reflections,

talks to itself in a fond,
judgemental murmur,

alone at last.
I stood so close

to you I could have
reached out and

touched you just
as you turned

over and began to
snore not unattractively,

no, never less than
attractively, my love,

my love--but in this
curiously glowing dark, this

finite emptiness, you, you, you
are crucial, hear the

whimpering back of
the talk, the approaching

fears when I may
cease to be me, all

lost or rather lumped
here in a retrograded,

dislocating, imploding
self, a uselessness

talks, even if finally to no one,
talks and talks.

- Robert Creeley

NOTE: For more retirement resources also see:

Retirement Speeches on Squidoo

Free Retirement Letters on Squidoo

1001 Ways to Enjoy Your Retirement on Squidoo

The Best Places to Retire in the World on Squidoo

GOODBYE LETTERS FOR WORK

Having a happy retirement depends on many other factors including having a few best friends to share time with once you retire.

To accompany the retirement poems on this webpage, here are some FRIENDSHIP POEMS that come from THE FRIENDSHIP CAFE.

Friendship Poem #1

From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends,
There's nothing worth the wear of winning,
But laughter and the love of friends.
- Hilaire Belloc

Friendship Poem #2

Today a man discovered gold and fame,
Another flew the stormy seas;
One found the germ of a disease.
But what high fates my path attend:
For I - today I found a friend.
- Helen Barker Parker

Friendship Poem #1

Scatter seeds of kindness everywhere you go;
Scatter bits of courtesy - watch them grow and grow.
Gather buds of friendship;
Keep them till full-blown;
You will find more happiness
than you have ever known.
- Amy R. Raabe

Also see BOSSES DAY POEMS on The Fun at Work Cafe

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COME DOWN, O MAID by Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

COME down, O maid, from yonder mountain height:
What pleasure lives in height (the shepherd sang),
In height and cold, the splendour of the hills?
But cease to move so near the Heavens, and cease
To glide a sunbeam by the blasted Pine,
To sit a star upon the sparkling spire;
And come, for Love is of the valley, come,
For Love is of the valley, come thou down
And find him; by the happy threshold, he,
Or hand in hand with Plenty in the maize,
Or red with spirted purple of the vats,
Or foxlike in the vine; nor cares to walk
With Death and Morning on the silver horns,
Nor wilt thou snare him in the white ravine,
Nor find him dropt upon the firths of ice,
That huddling slant in furrow-cloven falls
To roll the torrent out of dusky doors:
But follow; let the torrent dance thee down
To find him in the valley; let the wild
Lean-headed Eagles yelp alone, and leave
The monstrous ledges there to slope, and spill
Their thousand wreaths of dangling water-smoke
That like a broken purpose waste in air:
So waste not thou; but come; for all the vales
Await thee; azure pillars of the hearth
Arise to thee; the children call, and I
Thy shepherd pipe, and sweet is every sound,
Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet;
Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn,
The moan of doves is immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumberable bees.

Also See:
Retirement Letters from Readers of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

Retirement Jobs - The traditional Top Ten Retirement Jobs and the Top Ten Cool Retirement Jobs

The Joy of Not Working : A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and Overworked by Ernie Zelinski

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This short review of The Joy of Not Working comes from the United States Department of State.

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Retirement Wishes and Retirement Sentiments

Where to Retire on The Retirement Cafe

Jobs in Retirement on The Retirement Cafe

For More Retirement Resources See

RETIREMENT PLANNING ON SQUIDOO

5 More Reasons to Buy and Read How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

1. You want to have a good day - everyday - when you retire!

2. You "Absolutely, Positively" want to retire happy, wild, and free.

3. You want to inspire yourself with new accomplishments once you retire.

4. You want to gain the courage to take early retirement - in fact, the earlier, the better.

5. You have always wanted to fire your boss and take control of your job destiny.

Sonnet 16 XVI

When I consider how my light is spent,
E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide,
Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, least he returning chide,
Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd,
I fondly ask; But patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts, who best
Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and waite.

Sonnet XIX: When I Consider How my Light is Spent

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."

For More Great Retirement Poems See

FUNNY RETIREMENT POEMS

RETIREMENT POEMS on HOW TO RETIRE HAPPY

Before you write your retirement poem for your retirement party also Check out:

Ernie Zelinski's Retirement Articles on American Chronicle

Here are some of new items that will appear on The Retirement Poems and Quotes Cafe:

• teacher retirement poems
• free retirement poems
• principal retirement poems
• funny retirement poems

Growing Old
It is to spend long days
And not once feel that we were ever young.
It is to add, immured
In the hot prison of the present, month
To month with weary pain.
- Mathew Arnolds

First Three Lines of Do not go gentle into that good night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Visit one of Ernie Zelinski's Blogs:

Retirement Planning Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor

Retirement Living Made Easy - It's All about The Joy of Not Working

The following are resources by the author of The World's Best Retirement Book:

Ernie Zelinski on LinkedIn
Love Quotes for Retirement
Friendship Poems for Retirement