本文以余光中為對象，探討「當代─漢語─詩歌」的老年課題。一方面正視詩人「也曾年輕過」的事實，重構他早年「以鋼筆挑戰毛筆」的歷史進程。另一方面，考慮到文化、血氣、詩藝等因素，探討老年詩學所涉及的審美課題。我們發現：余光中在1960年代，藉由論戰樹立了文化英雄的形象，騁其健筆，多方開闢戰場。既嘲弄了護衞傳統的文化人在「跳著八佾舞」，也調侃「五四」新文學是行將就木的「老太太」。又以「回頭的浪子」自居，批判了激進的現代主義。惟自1970年代以後，他的中、老年意識日趨強烈，但也由於作品積累漸多，在技巧與題材兩方面，常面臨了自我重覆的危機。在他較好的詩中，能夠展現出「老」的多種情感，既超越「歎老傷卑」的傳統格調，又不侷限於「老而沖淡」的模式。細讀余光中詩中的老年主體，應當有助於超越「敬老／厭老」的固定反應，重估高齡美感在當代文學中的意義。

This article examines issues on "Contemporary-Chinese-Poetry" of Yu Guangzhong’s works written in the late period. On one hand, we squarely face the fact that the poet 'was young,' in terms of reconstructing the historical process of "challenging the writing brush with a pen" in his early period. On the other hand, inconsideration of culture, temperament, poetic art, and other factors, this article explores the aesthetic issues in Yu's late poetry. We find that Yu Guangzhong established an image of a cultural hero through debates in the 1960s, opening a number of battlefields by the pen in his hand: mocking that the cultured people who protected tradition were" dancing the eight-row dance," ridiculing the new literature of the May Fourth as an "old, half-dead woman," and finally, using "The Prodigal Son" to criticize radical modernism. Starting from the1970s, Yu's consciousness of aging was gradually increasing, although due to the accumulation of works, both his writing skills and themes repeated. In some of good works, he is able to express emotions of aging, going beyond the traditional style of "sighing oldness and sorrowing for being lowly" and not limited to the model of "aging and indifference." Carefully studying the works written in Yu Guangzhong's late period could help break the stereotype of "respecting/disgusting the aged" and reevaluate the significance of the aesthetics of aging in modern literature.