Which best captures what we infer about the poet?
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Correct answer: C. He is old but happy in not being wise.
Explanation
Old, he prays to remain 'a foolish, passionate man' rather than become a praised sage.
Note: Passage II is W. B. Yeats's 'A Prayer for Old Age' (1934), which is copyrighted and not reproduced. Yeats prays to be guarded from 'thoughts men think / In the mind alone', since lasting song is thought 'in a marrow-bone'. He asks to be spared 'all that makes a wise old man / That can be praised of all', and prays that, though he die old, he may seem 'A foolish, passionate man'.