"When You Are Old" By William Butler Yeats

 

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.

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

Poem Video👇

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Who wrote the poem "When You Are Old"?

William Butler Yeats (June 13, 1865 – January 28, 1939)

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, playwright, prose writer, and is widely considered as one of the greatest poets of the 20^th century. He was born to the Protestant, Anglo-Irish community that considered themselves English people born in Ireland and had largely controlled the economic, political, and social life of Ireland. However, Yeats strongly affirmed his Irish nationality and found inspiration in Irish legends and the occult in his early career. Later his poetry became more physical and realistic. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. 

"When You Are Old" explanation

 In the poem, the speaker asks the reader (his beloved) to imagine ahead her old age, suggesting she will regret not accepting the speaker’s love. His love is genuine and permanent, for the speaker loves her restless soul itself whereas others love her for her beauty and youth, which will eventually fade away. This poem is generally thought to be addressed to Maud Gonne, an Irish actress with whom Yeats was enamored throughout his life. Yeats proposed to Gonne on four different occasions between 1891 and 1901, and she rejected each proposal and married to another man in 1903.