[1628] Let Me Die a Youngman's Death

Let me die a youngman's death
not a clean and inbetween
the sheets holywater death
not a famous-last-words
peaceful out of breath death

When I'm 73
and in constant good tumour
may I be mown down at dawn
by a bright red sports car
on my way home
from an allnight party

Or when I'm 91
with silver hair
and sitting in a barber's chair
may rival gangsters
with hamfisted tommyguns burst in
and give me a short back and insides

Or when I'm 104
and banned from the Cavern
may my mistress
catching me in bed with her daughter
and fearing for her son
cut me up into little pieces
and throw away every piece but one

Let me die a youngman's death
not a free from sin tiptoe in
candle wax and waning death
not a curtains drawn by angels borne
'what a nice way to go' death

   -- Roger McGough

We've run a couple of McGough's more humorous poems in the past, but we were
long overdue for a serious one. And, despite the superficially light tone,
this is indeed a serious poem, comparable in spirit if not in tone to Dylan
Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle".

Which is not to say it doesn't have its absurdist side - this may be a
serious poem, but it is not a solemn one, and the way the humour plays off
against the darker tone is one of its particular strengths. (Who but McGough
could have come up with the phrase 'in constant good tumour'?) It's a
refreshing change from the "unconquerable soul" tone of most poems I've read
on the topic - it is easy to picture the narrator as a living, breathing
reprobate who fears a sanitised death far more than he fears death itself.

The poem also delivers a somewhat bitter commentary on the roles into which
society slots the old - another topic which McGough's gritty narrative voice
makes a perfect medium to convey. (I suspect Bert Baxter, from the Adrian
Mole books, would have loved it, for instance).

martin

[this poem is archived, accessible and awaiting your comments at]
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1628.html
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