Eliot’s early published poems contain a series of old men, in predominantly derogatory portrayals. They display both physical and mental decline, as well as personal neglect and aberrant behaviour. Characteristics of Eliot’s old men from his juvenilia, such as blindness and drunkenness, now recur in his published work, and can be seen to have particular significance; while with ‘Gerontion’, his first titular old man, Eliot deepens his presentation of senescence, depicting psychological as well as physical aspects of old age, and deploying an elderly character in order to personify his concept of the historical sense.