William Butler Yeats

When You Are Old

Narration of William B. Yeats's poem When You Are Old

Future Self Projection

Yeats uses second-person perspective to create an intimate, prophetic scene of aging and remembrance.

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,

Pilgrim Soul Metaphor

Key phrase suggests an interior spiritual journey beyond physical beauty. Indicates depth of true love.

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

Love as Mythic Presence

Personifies Love as a wandering, dramatic entity that moves across landscapes and hides among stars.

And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1931.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1939, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 86 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

Romantic Rejection and Memory

CONTEXT Written during Yeats's unrequited love for Maud Gonne, this poem transforms personal pain into a universal meditation on love and time.

The poem operates as a speculative memory, imagining a future moment when the beloved reflects on past romantic possibilities. Yeats suggests that true love recognizes something deeper than physical beauty—the 'pilgrim soul' that endures beyond youth.

Poetic Technique of Projection

Yeats uses second-person address to create an extraordinary intimacy, forcing the reader to imagine themselves as both subject and object of the poem. The syntax moves from physical description (grey, sleep) to emotional complexity (sorrows, changing face).

The final stanza's celestial imagery—Love 'paced upon the mountains' and 'hid his face amid a crowd of stars'—transforms personal longing into a mythic, almost cosmic emotional landscape.