In this poem the lamentation of the old Pensioner, W. B. Yeats wants to spit on the face of time because the cruel time has changed him an old man from his happy romantic youth. He shows his anger against the time because it has given much pain to him. The cruel time has changed him from happy to sad, young to old, and energetic to weak. In the past, he had many friends and beloveds, but the cruel time has made him old and alone. His romantic youth and his happiness are taken in a cruel time. It has made him an old broken tree. Nobody likes to talk to him in his old age due to the generation gap. He could do nothing except to lament for the romantic past in his painful old age. So, the poet wants to spit on the face of time.