Lola Ridge gives us a brief, unflinching portrait of an elderly laborer whose body has been twisted and dried out by years of hard use. He is warped and gland-dry, his spine bent, his frame collapsed into half its former size. The comparison to a cracked paving-stone is key: he has been walked over, weathered, and left with a grimy, pitted surface carrying the mark of countless feet. The speaker doesn’t sentimentalize him, but there is quiet respect in the precision of the image. The mood is heavy and somber, almost brutal in its honesty. You feel the exhaustion in every word, as if the man has been slowly ground down until he is less a person than a piece of worn public stone.
An Old Workman — Summary
Warped... gland-dry... With spine askew And body shrunken into half its space... Well-used as some cracked paving-stone... Bearing on his grimed and pitted front A stamp... as of innumerable feet.