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.
Originally published in The Rose (1893) by W. B. Yeats. Public domain.
Analysis
W. B. Yeats’s “When You Are Old” is a quiet and haunting meditation on love, aging, and the endurance of spiritual connection.
Written when Yeats was in his late twenties and inspired by his unrequited love for the actress Maud Gonne, the poem transforms personal longing into timeless reflection. Its speaker addresses an imagined future version of the beloved, inviting her to remember the love that valued her inner soul above her outward beauty.
Form and Structure
The poem consists of three quatrains written in iambic pentameter with a regular ABBA rhyme scheme. This symmetry gives the poem the grace and inevitability of a remembered melody. The opening line’s gentle rhythm — “When you are old and grey and full of sleep” — establishes a tone of tenderness rather than reproach. The poem’s form mirrors its theme: measured, reflective, and governed by the passage of time.
Perspective and Tone
The poem is spoken by a man who imagines the woman he loves growing old, reading his verses, and recalling the love she once inspired. His tone is both wistful and dignified. There is no bitterness, only the ache of recognition that love, once unreturned, will one day be understood. By framing the memory in the future tense, Yeats transforms regret into prophecy — love may be lost now, but its truth will outlast youth.
Love and the Soul
Yeats contrasts worldly admiration with spiritual devotion. Many loved her beauty, “with love false or true,” but one man “loved the pilgrim soul in you.” This distinction between surface and essence defines the poem’s moral center.
The “pilgrim soul” suggests both journey and endurance — a love that persists through time and change. The speaker’s devotion extends beyond physical beauty to embrace sorrow itself: “And loved the sorrows of your changing face.” This is love as acceptance, not conquest.
Imagery and Symbolism
The poem’s imagery moves from hearth to heavens — from the woman’s domestic stillness (“nodding by the fire”) to the cosmic distance where Love himself “hid his face amid a crowd of stars.”
The transition from earthly to celestial imagery mirrors the poem’s emotional arc: from mortal aging to immortal remembrance. The fleeing Love becomes an emblem of transcendence, a spirit that cannot die even when desire fades.
Emotional Depth and Restraint
Yeats’s restraint is key to the poem’s power. He does not plead or accuse. Instead, he frames love as something the beloved will come to recognize too late. This quiet inevitability gives the poem its pathos.
The imagined scene by the fire evokes the melancholy of late reflection, when memory becomes both comfort and wound. The poem thus operates as both elegy and love letter — mourning what never was while immortalizing what remains.
Influence and Legacy
“When You Are Old” remains one of Yeats’s most enduring lyrics because it fuses personal emotion with universal truth. It speaks not only to unrequited love but to anyone who has cherished another beyond the reach of time.
The simplicity of its diction conceals a profound meditation on aging and the permanence of feeling. It captures the essence of Yeats’s early Romanticism before his later poetry turned more austere and symbolic.
Conclusion
“When You Are Old” is less a lament than a benediction. It honors love that endures beyond beauty and passion — the kind of love that sees, and forgives, and remembers.
Yeats’s vision of Love pacing among the stars leaves us with the image of an affection too vast for earth, too enduring for age to erase. In its quiet sadness lies one of the most beautiful affirmations of faithful love in modern poetry.