William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) "When You Are Old"

When You are Old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look


Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.


--W. B. Yeats

Yeats' poem, "When You Are Old" is a love poem written by a man about a young woman he loves. It is written so that when the woman grows old, she can reflect on the life she had and the people that loved her. Yeats' writes, "When you are old and gray and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire, take down this book" which suggests that the woman is not old and gray now, but rather that when she is old, it would be the time to reflect upon her past and read the poem in the book. Yeats' states, "How many loved your moments of glad grace, and loved your beauty with love false or true" which incites the idea that people loved the exterior that she presented to them, such as her "grace" and her "beauty," however, contrary to what others loved of her, the speaker states that "one man loved the pilgrim soul in you" which suggests that the man loved who the woman was internally. This poem illicits the tone of a a love poem.