39
I only woke this morning
To find the world is fair—
I’m going on for forty,
With scarcely one grey hair;
I’m going on for forty,
Where man’s strong life begins,
With scarce a sign of crows’ feet,
In spite of all my sins.
Then here’s the living Forties!
The Forties! The Forties!
Then here’s the living Forties!
We’re good for ten years more.
The teens were black and bitter,
A smothered boyhood’s grave—
A farm-drudge in the drought-time,
A weary workshop slave.
But twenty years have laid them,
And all the world is fair—
We’ll find time in the Forties,
To have some boyhood there.
Then here’s the wide, free Forties—
The Forties! The Forties!
Then here’s the wide, free Forties!
We’re good for ten years more!
The twenties they were noble,
The bravest years, I think;
’Twas man to man in trouble,
In working and in drink;
’Twas man to man in fighting,
For money or for praise.
And we’ll find in the Forties
Some more Bohemian days.
Then here’s the wiser Forties!
The Forties! The Forties!
Then here’s the wiser Forties!
We’re good for ten years more.
The thirties were the fate years;
I fought behind the scenes.
The thirties were more cruel
And blacker than the teens;
I held them not but bore them—
They were no years of mine;
But they are going from me,
For I am thirty-nine.
So here’s the stronger Forties!
The Forties! The Forties!
And here’s the good old Forties!
We’re good for ten years more.
poem by Henry Lawson
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Related quotes
The best years are the forties; after fifty a man begins to deteriorate, but in the forties he is at the maximum of his villainy.
quote by H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Beggar Maid's Breakdown In The Life Cycle
This beguile strange woman in her forties and I am sorry that I have heard forties are the naughtiest.
She begs not charity and she has enough money.
Even though the solitude and suffering.
The precious money could help her to replace solace?
Under the burning Sun and freezing Moon
Still she needs the warmth.
Only an honest human blanket could minimize her nauseous feelings.
Where do they find this pedigree?
She seeks a pure bred Man in her sojourn
And still she struggles to find the needle in a haystack.
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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Treatment Resources Extends Lifetimes
money is a guaranteed ticket
to quick health care first class
health hit a six or take a wicket...
after moving to Jakarta I noticed
neighbours men in forties died
no illness these men were old aged...
no one dies of old age in early forties
death is disease or medical conditions
dirt poor were never treated diagnosed...
medical stakes have interesting spikes
treatment resources extend lifetimes
entrepreneur survives discarded poor dies...
poem by Terence George Craddock
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When a man is not a lover in his twenties, not strong in his thirties, not rich in his forties and not wise in his fifties he will never be so.
Edgar Allan Poe
An American literary icon but what caused his death none seem to know
He was more than a man of words the great Edgar Allan Poe
He died when in his forties his best writing years of him ahead
His fame has attained greatness and he is widely read.
Most writers in their forties have scarcely reached their writing prime
His marvellous poem 'The Raven' has not faded out in time
A writer for all ages and one of literary note
And many who love literature have him as their favourite poet.
In life he was quite famous in death greatness he did attain
As an immortal literary gem 'The Raven' does remain
In the English speaking Countries of the World from North to Southern shore
His writings remain popular and his readers now far more
Than he had in his lifetime his genius is living on
Whilst millions of his contemporaries to obscurity have gone
Despite the passing of time his literary legend grow
Though in his too brief life span few him did wish to know.
poem by Francis Duggan
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It is in the thirties that we want friends. In the forties we know they won't save us any more than love did.
The Happiest Old
The happiest old
have nothing and don't mind.
The happiest young
are old before their time.
Few these.
The others are behind their years,
suffer thirteen-year-olds' fears
into their twenties,
and in their forties
have appetite
for sins of twenty.
But not the bite.
poem by Brian Taylor
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Some of my ancestors were religious dissenters who came to America over three hundred years ago. Others were abolitionists in New England in the eighteen forties and fifties.
quote by Pete Seeger
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Twenty years have flown (in answer to William Shakespeare)
More than twenty years have flown
and it’s only as yesterday
that you were my very own
where as students we did kiss and play
and still the treasure of your best days
has stayed as a pure remedy to me
that even the gazes of other men sing to your praise,
telling of your sheer beauty
and until very old age
your looks, your charm seems endless
as if years do no damage
and in our forties life feels boundless:
with your children moulded to your impression
and you are outshining them in every dimension.
poem by Gert Strydom
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And, well of course, Count Basie, and I think all of the black bands of the late thirties and early forties, bands with real players. They had an influence on everybody, not just drummers.
quote by Buddy Rich
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Crime, to the man of the forties, was an alien monstrous terror.
quote by Rebecca H. Davis
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A few of us who are around the sixty mark don't play that much these days and if you are taking on a couple of guys in their forties it is very difficult.
quote by John Newcombe
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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looking Back An Overview Of A Life
Today, I turned forty three
So I look back or look ahead
Back to what I was or ahead to what I'll be
But not too far because then I'd be dead
I decided to look back then ttavel ahead
Exploring my most pivotal years
Remembering things people had said
Examining my deepest fears
Childhood, years of innocence and wonder
Everything to a child's eyes is new
Til one day, innocence is torn asunder
As surely as the sky will be blue
Teenage years, a sense of immortality
At such an age death is not even imagined
Doing everything with such youthful vitality
Not knowing the end is already predestined
Twenties and Thirties maturity is reached
And things just seem to fall into place
Your innocence, long since breached
Is remembered in the look on a child's face
In your Forties attaining middle age
Deciding that maturity looks good on you
Graying hair, against which you don't rage
You feel it's distinguished, how very true
poem by Harry J. Couchon Jr
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I've never wanted to be the ingenue. Now that I'm getting into my forties, I think my time as a woman has arrived; I think I might have a new moment in my career. I have that drive left - just for a little while.
quote by Debi Mazar
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Change of partner
To go to bed and wake up seeing
The same face will kill man’s appetite
For sex at his forties but a stranger
Can revive it even in his old age.
12.06.2011
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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There are lesbians, God knows... if you came up through lesbian circles in the forties and fifties in New York... who were not feminist and would not call themselves feminists.
quote by Audre Lorde
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Shakespeare, The Great
William Shakespeare is very great
In that he penned in his forties all human thoughts
That would dawn only far late on others,
Against all odds and limitations of his time.
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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I have mixed feelings about those sorts of things. When I see it done by interesting young people, I think it's very valid. But when established photographers, people in their forties, copy me and get a lot of money, well, I find that to be very stupid.
quote by Helmut Newton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Nomadic Jim
The people nice to me in case you get me wrong
But I must be off been around here too long
Nomadic Jim said to me in a farewell good day
As to the railway station he hurried on his way
One in his late forties showing his years in gray
And clearly he has known a far better day
But it matters little to him if his best days are gone
He was born to travel and he will travel on
One who has seen much of the big World out there
His thoughts often lure him to places elsewhere
The lust of the wander is an addictive thing
Who knows where he will be for the birth of next Spring
He may be in Capetown or Berlin or Rome
To Nomadic Jim there is no place called home.
poem by Francis Duggan
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Nobody ever said that growing old would be easy. Just having to hold the newspaper out in your forties and then hair growing out of unusual parts of your body in your fifties. It's tough on the ego.
quote by Geoffrey Rush
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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