Gerontion and its link to Shakespeare

This poem is particularly interesting because it begins with an epigraph from one of Shakespeare’s plays.  Seeing as this is an intentional use of someone else’s work it must be significant.  I looked up the play to see what general mood it creates, and how it would link it to Gerontion.  The play Is classified as comedy but this is not the general mood according to those who have read or seen it.  I think that in linking these two together Eliot is attempting to create a link with Shakespeare in the same way that the speaker in the poem has trouble with aging.  The play was written and performed in the early 17^th century representing the old man in the poem.  The young boy who is talked about directly following the quote represents the new type of literature that Eliot and his generation embodies.  The message of the poem and this example is creating the mood that aging is relative.  It is notable that Eliot writes this poem when he is about 32 and has put himself in the shoes of an old man to write the poem.  I think that through the timelessness of Shakespeare’s play and how it endured for so many years after Shakespeare was dead is what Eliot is trying to emulate.