The panic of growing older… An insight into a poem of self-reflection
As I took a walk through the pedestrians of my street, a thought of a particular poem titled “The Panic of Growing Older” by Lenrie Peters flashed through my mind. It was a poem I taught my students during my youth service year and with the contemporary happenings in our society, one can’t help but agree that the title gives itself out. It cut across the lives of everyone growing older with no attainable results.
The poem is both reflective and philosophical as it bothers with the proverbial saying “A stitch in time saves nine” It also shares relevance with the biblical expression that says “Work while it is day for night cometh when no man shall work”. Putting all these ideas together, the poet foresees the fear associated with an unprepared life that is growing older.
Following the natural order of life, old age is a blessing but when failure destroys such life, there comes panic and regrets.
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However, the word panic is used to show a state of sudden feeling of great fear that cannot be controlled and it can prevent somebody from thinking clearly. The poet best put it in stanza one, that the panic of growing older is fast coming every year.
Furthermore, it is believed by many that failure in life is most at times traceable to how one misuses his youthful age which would have given reasonable efforts for a better tomorrow. But when such age is wasted in laxity and frivolities, the result of such life will be nothing more than fear. This brings about the unrealistic statement made by some individuals, wishing their lives were like that of babies who are unperturbed about life situations and how they turn out.
Ideally, those who have done their assignment by making headways for the future have nothing to be scared of. But if one neglects the need to plan and work towards a better life, the fear of an unfilled life will set in. This holds to the fact that as you grow older, you are less inspired to go out of your comfort Zone.
There are chances of lacking the strength to pursue the dreams you once envisioned when younger. You ought to tap into your full potential before becoming weak, thereby avoiding living the rest of your life in regrets.
In regards to this, the poet stated in Stanza Three downwards that:
At thirty
a sudden throb of
pain. Laboratory tests
have nothing to show
Legs cribbed
in domesticity allow
no sudden leaps
At the moon now
Copybook bisected
with red ink
and failures –
nothing to show the world
Three children perhaps
the world expects
it of you. No
specialist’s effort there.
But science gives hope
of twice three score
and ten. Hope
is not a grain of sand.
Inner satisfaction
dwindles in sharp
blades of expectation
from now on the world has you.
This indicates that, once you clock 30, still trying to find your bearing, a sudden thought of disappointment sets in. It comes with the feeling of being depressed, insufficient, powerless, and sick.
At this age and above, you are expected to be married, at least with one or two kids, there come family responsibilities, and you have to meet these demands to be seen as a responsible person. Unfortunately, the demands can be disturbing. An attempt to move from this present stage to another becomes difficult because of the never-ending family needs. You might as well feel stuck in a position.
When you realize that a lot of your set down goals have not been actualized, you will be filled with a grip of panic.
Frank Herbert, a renowned author best put the defeat of fear this way: “I must not fear, fear is the mind-killer. Fear is a little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain”.
Subsequently, the poet gives us a ray of encouragement to amend whatever will bring us fear of not actualizing our dreams as our age runs down. In essence, if we are still alive, we have the opportunity to achieve a lot of things before the final doom comes knocking, which is death.
By Ogwezi Leonard Onyemechi