Poem for a Retirement

A Retirement Poem

Fear no more the heat o’ th’ sun,

Nor the furious winter’s rages.

Thou thy worldly task hast done,

Home art gone and ta’en thy wages.

— William Shakespeare

A Poem for a retirement

To walk down a path

where great men have

been is an honour itself,

for a few privileged men.

But to blaze one’s own trail

unequalled to thee;

Is a tribute to greatness

that few men shall see.

— Anonymous

Irish Retirement Blessing

May you always have work
for your hands to do.

May your pockets hold
always a coin or two.

May the sun shine bright
on your windowpane.

May the rainbow be certain
to follow each rain.

May the hand of a friend
always be near you.

And may God fill your heart
with gladness to cheer you.

Retirement from Tennyson’s Ulysses

Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved the earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

— From Ulysses by Alfred Tennyson