Entry #3: The Turn in the Road

This Celtic poem from the seventeenth century discussed the

appearances a man learns to put up once he reaches forty. When a man
reaches forty, it says, he can bear the knowledge of natures truths: people
die, everything changes, some roads only go one way. The author tells of
how when a man reaches forty, he carries his weapon of choice, speech, with
him wherever he goes. Once a man reaches past forty, he can laugh over the
scars of the past and continue moving through his life. The poem ends by
hinting that when a mans secrets are revealed, and when he knows they will
become known, he has nothing left to hold up, nothing left to shield himself
from the eyes of the world. This makes him weak and lets the crows settle
on the soft acres of his face, meaning that the faade he puts up begins to
fade away. With all secrets revealed, however; the mans true self is allowed
to emerge making him new again.

Citation: Celtic Poem. "The Turn in the Road." Kenyon Review n.d.: 51-52. Web.