RAYMOND WILSON

BACKGROUND/INFO ABOUT AUTHOR

• was a British literary scholar, author and academic.
• born on 12th November 1874 and died on 23rd April 1942
• in his career, he wrote on a wide variety of subjects relating to English literature, history and culture; for example he worked on the Shakespearean additions to the play SIR THOMAS MORE, with Alfred W. Pollard and other scholars.
• also his 1935 biography, THOMAS MORE, was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

THE TRAVELLER

THE TRAVELLER

• The poem is about an old traveller who walks and walks and sits on a stile, and children asking how he is able to do things when he is so old.
• I think this poem is the poet's way of asking why old people are content with things/do things that is not going to do much for them (eg. 'Your boots are worn, your clothes are torn, tell us why you smile' and 'without a friend to your journey's end and why are you so slow?')

THE TRAVELLER

Old man, old man, sitting on the stile,
Your boots are worn, your clothes are torn,
Tell us why you smile.

Children, children, what silly things you are!
My boots are worn and my clothes are torn because I've walked so far.

Old man, old man, where have you walked from?
Your legs are bent, your breath is spent—
Which way did you come?

Children, children, when you're old and lame,
When your legs are bent and your breath is spent—
You'll know the way I came.

Old man, old man, have you far to go
Without a friend to your journey's end
And why are you so slow?

Children, children, I do the best I may; I meet a friend at my journey's end
With who you'll meet someday.

Old man, old man, sitting on the stile,
How do you know which way to go,
And why is it you smile?

Children, children, butter should be spread, floors should be swept and promises kept—
And you should be in bed!