An Old ManConstantine P. Cavafy

- 1897 -

In the inner room of the noisy caféan old man sits bent over a table;a newspaper before him, no companion beside him.

And in the scorn of his miserable age,he meditates how little he enjoyed the yearswhen he had strength, the art of the word, and good looks.

He knows he has aged much; he is aware of it, he sees it,and yet the time when he was young seems likeyesterday. How short a time, how short a time.

And he ponders how Wisdom had deceived him;and how he always trusted her – what folly! –the liar who would say, “Tomorrow. You have ample time.”

He recalls impulses he curbed; and how muchjoy he sacrificed. Every lost chancenow mocks his senseless prudence.

… But with so much thinking and rememberingthe old man reels. And he dozes offbent over the table of the café.

Ellipsis…• Ellipsis (plural ellipses; from the Ancient Greek:

ἔλλειψις, élleipsis, "omission") is a mark or series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word in the original text.

• An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought, or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence.

• When placed at the end of a sentence, the ellipsis can also inspire a feeling of melancholy longing.

• The ellipsis calls for a slight pause in speech.

• 2 lines = Couplet • 3 lines = Tercet • 4 lines = Quatrain • 5 lines = Cinquain • 6 lines = Sestet • 7 lines = Septet • 8 lines = Octave

Personal Perspective = An old ManLimited 3rd Person(Cautionary Tale)

Instructive = Ithaca2nd Person + Imperative

Reflective = Candles1st Person

Macbeth:To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,To the last syllable of recorded time;And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,And then is heard no more. It is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.

Macbeth Act 5, scene 5, 19–28

Hidden Things

-Building in Leiden, the Netherlands. 2004

Something to think about…

• Man’s harsh fate• Poem of regret of a life, of things that did

not happen, of unrealised dreams and wishes

• A cautionary tale of how by putting off life it passes you by

• You should enjoy life, not hide from it