William Butler Yeats was a 20th century Irish poet. When You Are Old is one of his most popular works. He was greatly influenced by both religion and Irish mythology. Yeats spent much of his adult life besotted by a woman called Maude Gonne; but his love was sadly unrequited, despite numerous proposals of marriage. It's believed that the speaker of When You Are Old is Yeats himself and that the woman whose 'pilgrim soul' he loved is Maude. In the last stanza he is predicting that as an old lady she will look back and recognise his true love for her and regret how she rejected his proposals until the pain caused him to flee.


When You Are Old by W.B. Yeats

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.


#instapoetry #poemoftheday
#poetryporn #instapoet #poetryofyoutube #learnenglishthroughstory