Sniff them and think and sniff again and try
Once more to think what it is I am remembering,
Always in vain. I cannot like the scent,
Yet I would rather give up others more sweet,
With no meaning, than this bitter one.
I have mislaid the key. I sniff the spray
And think of nothing; I see and I hear nothing;
Yet seem, too, to be listening, lying in wait
For what I should, yet never can, remember:
No garden appears, no path, no hoar-green bush
Of Lad's-love, or Old Man, no child beside,
Neither father nor mother, nor any playmate;
Only an avenue, dark, nameless, without end.
The gloomy final sentence provides a sad conclusion that fails to resolve the problem. The last two words “without end” may call to mind the biblical Christian reference; 
 Thou art God from everlasting, and world without end (1662 Prayer Book). 
 It is significant that a poem which deals with names ends with the “avenue” which is “nameless”. 
 But the speaker, and therefore the reader, is left with the metaphorical dark endless avenue, which represents his past and his future. He can’t look as the memories of the past elude him, but there is no future either; no meaning, no identity and no light. 

Old Man