You Are Old, Father William Poem Analysis

'You are old, Father William', the young man said,
'And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head --
Do you think, at your age, it is right?

''In my youth', Father William replied to his son,
'I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again.

''You are old', said the youth, 'as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door --
Pray, what is the reason of that?'

'In my youth', said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,
'I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment - one shilling the box -
Allow me to sell you a couple?'

'You are old', said the youth, 'and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak -
Pray, how did you manage to do it?

''In my youth', said his father, 'I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life.

''You are old', said the youth, 'one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose -
What made you so awfully clever?

''I have answered three questions, and that is enough,'
Said his father, 'don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you downstairs!'

This poem is a parody of Robert Southey's "The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them"

In this poem, the son is very age-obsessed because he keeps reminding his father of how old he is. The son repeatedly tells the father that he is old and asks him why he does the things he does now. The father tells his son that when he was young, he was scared of doing things that are risky or scary but now, his age does not matter to him and is just a number. The son is very arrogant in a way because all the thinks of his father is a age and questions his actions. Despite the fact that the father is old, he seems pretty content with the fact he is getting older and at the end seems annoyed with his son. This poem has end rhythm, the rhythm scheme is ABAB, the poem has anapest, and it is burlesque it also has hyperbole in it. This poem is repeative in the sense that the son tells the father he's old, the son questions the father, the father rebuddles back and shuts the son up.