"With All Flags Flying" by Anne Tyler

Question

Does anyone know of a good poem that sums up this short story's theme?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

0 00 00“With All Flags Flying”:00 00Themes and Connections00“Old Men” by Ogden Nash02br
02br
00People expect old men to die, 02br
00They do not really mourn old men. 02br
00Old men are different. People look 02br
00At them with eyes that wonder when... 02br
00People watch with unshocked eyes; 02br
00But the old men know when an old man dies. 02br
00“00Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town” by Pearl Jam02br
02br
00I seem to recognize your face02br
00haunting, familiar, yet I can't seem to place it02br
00cannot find the candle of thought to light your name02br
00lifetimes are catching up with me02br
00all these changes taking place, I wish I'd seen the place02br
00but no one's ever taken me02br
00hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away... 02br
00hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away... 02br
00I swear I recognize your breath02br
00memories like fingerprints are slowly raising02br
00me, you wouldn't recall, for I'm not my former02br
00it's hard when, you're stuck upon the shelf02br
00I changed by not changing at all, small town predicts my fate02br
00perhaps that's what no one wants to see02br
00I just want to scream...hello...02br
00my *** its been so long, never dreamed you'd return02br
00but now here you are, and here I am02br
00hearts and thoughts they fade...away...02br
00hearts and thoughts they fade...away...02br
00hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away...02br
00hearts and thoughts they fade...02br
00“Grant me, sound of body and of mind, to pass an old age lacking neither honor nor the lyre.”00Horace (65-8 B.C.)00 0-

Anonymous · Answer

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night -- Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Anonymous · Answer

Yes, "Lineage" by Margarate Walker

"With All Flags Flying" by Anne Tyler

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