I am doing an assignment and I need to find a poem that has to do with age differences in relationships. It would be really handy if I could find a poem with the subject to do with age differences as it is an important part of my assingment. Thanks.
Alison-
Check out 'My Last Dutchess' (search on this site).
Jack
Sonnet XXII
My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date;
But when in thee time's furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.
For all that beauty that doth cover thee
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me;
How can I then be elder than thou art?
O therefore, love, be of thyself so wary,
As I, not for myself, but for thee will;
Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.
Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain;
Thou gavest me thine, not to give back again.
William Shakespeare
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or for something more modern - here's one about the age differences in parent/daughter relationships:
Bedroom Conversations
Young girls entering their
parents' bedrooms eager for
conversations of the most cosmic
kind 'Mum, I was wondering...., or
Mum, remember how you said....?'
pause suddenly
as they pass before the mirror, their eyes
flicking like tiddlers into that
bland pool 'just one flick and they're gone'
finning busily in the depthless element
of their vanity, their restless
search for reassurance,
while parents,
in that other world beyond, scoop patiently
at the surface, smilingly murmur: 'Well, go on...
you were wondering...' and: 'As you were
saying...'
But to no end - all conversations
sink under the weight of
abstraction, of wiggling dreams from which,
only occasionally, they rise
with experimental eyebrows, lips still framing
cuteness in between answering: 'Mmmnn?...
What's that, Mum?... I'm sorry... I didn't hear you?...'
Bruce Dawe
Rochester: A Song of a Young Lady to her Ancient Lover