When You Are Old

Published in William Butler Yeats’ second collection The Rose (1893), “When You Are Old” highlights an unrequited love between the speaker and his muse. The speaker talks directly to his muse and instructs the muse to open the book containing the poem and read it again and again. The poem was most likely inspired by Yeats’ own lover, Maud Gonne, an Irish revolutionary and actress. Like Yeats, Gonne was an Irish political figure. He had repeatedly proposed to Gonne, and she continually denied him. Eventually, both Yeats and Gonne married other people, but Gonne had an undeniable influence on Yeats and his work, inspiring multiple poems, as well as the plays The Countess Cathleen (1892) and Cathleen ni Houlihan. Yeats’ poem “On a Child’s Death” (1893) was inspired by the death of Gonne’s son, George. Gonne passed away in 1953, 14 years after Yeats.

Poet Biography

Born on June 13, 1865 in Sandymount, William Butler Yeats (also known as W.B. Yeats) is considered one of the foremost figures in Irish literature, famous for his poetry but also a playwright. Scholars acknowledge Yeats as the driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Along with others, Yeats helped found Abbey Theater, the National Theatre of Ireland, and he served two terms as a Senator to the Irish Free State.

Yeats received his education in Dublin and London. During his childhood, he spent his days in County Sligo, in northwest Ireland. At an early age, he became fascinated by the occult and Irish legends, which inspired his early poetry. He published his first poetry collection in 1889; thematically and philosophically, it paid tribute to writers like Edmund Spenser and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Eventually, beginning around 1900, Yeats distanced himself from the transcendentalist philosophies of his early poetry and began writing more realistic, physical, and political works. He promoted poets like Ezra Pound, and in 1923, Yeats received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

In 1889, Yeats met actress and Irish nationalist Maud Gonne, who is considered to be the inspiration for not only “When You Are Old,” but many of Yeats’ other poems. Gonne rejected Yeats’s multiple marriage proposals, and their friendship eventually dissipated. Eventually, Yeats married Georgie Hyde-Lees, a woman 26 years his junior.

As an Irish nationalist, Yeats advocated for a traditional way of life. However, as he aged, Yeats hid his nationalist spirit and distance himself from many of the intense Irish political movements. He did not support individualism, and he became fascinated by fascist movements and public order. In 1923, Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature—the award held symbolic power since, as an Irishman, Yeats won it so soon after Ireland’s independence. In Yeats’ later years, his demeanor became forceful and discourteous. After World War I, he became increasingly alarmed about whether or not democracy could succeed. His association with Pound led Yeats to an association with Benito Mussolini, whom he greatly admired and praised.

Yeats died in Menton, France on January 28, 1939 at the age of 73. Yeats wanted to be buried quickly, but for his remains to be sent back to Ireland eventually. In 1948, his body was returned to County Sligo.

Poem Text

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.

Yeats, William Butler. “When You Are Old.” 1893. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

In the first stanza, the poem opens directly with the statement “When you are old” (Line 1). The speaker addresses the audience as “you” (Line 1), engaging the reader more fully. The speaker describes an imagined scene, portraying the poem’s addressee close to falling asleep as they are “nodding by the fire” (Line 2). The speaker commands the “you” (Line 1) to “take down this book” (Line 2) and “slowly read” (Line 3). The speaker continues, encouraging the poem’s addressee to remember the past and their youthfulness. The speaker uses words like “soft” (Line 3) to portray youth. The speaker also fixates on the addressee’s eyes, implying that with age, the addressee’s eyes and inner-self have hardened. The speaker describes the addressee’s eyes as bearing “shadows deep” (Line 4), alluding to kept secrets that the speaker saw in the addressee’s eyes.

In the second stanza, the poem’s tone shifts. Continuing this nostalgic reflection, the speaker asserts that many others adored the addressee, specifically the addressee’s “moments of glad grace” (Line 5).  The speaker reminds the addressee that many others “loved” (Line 6) their “beauty” (Line 6), and others’ affections may have been “false or true” (Line 6). By comparison, the speaker reveals that only “one man” (Line 7) loved the addressee. The speaker’s tone implies that the “one man” (Line 7) could be themselves, and that what the “one man” (Line 7) admired in the addressee is their “pilgrim soul” (Line 7), a way of describing the addressee’s personality. The speaker offers the addressee another insight—that they alone loved the addressee as they aged. The speaker mentions the “sorrows” (Line 8) of the addressee’s “changing face” (Line 8), implying that the addressee has endured difficulties that others cannot appreciate, and this lifetime of experience is shown on their face.

In the third stanza, the speaker returns to the fireside scene established in the first stanza. The addressee bends “beside the glowing bars” (Line 9) of the hearth, tending the fire. The speaker imagines the addressee lamenting what the addressee did not recognize in the past, and the speaker portrays the addressee as murmuring in remembrance, regretting how quickly life passed and “how Love fled” (Line 10). In the poem’s final two lines, the speaker personifies love. The speaker imagines Love as a person pacing “the mountains overhead” (Line 11), as though Love overlooks and observes everything. In the poem’s final line, the speaker portrays Love as ashamed and hiding “his face amid a crowd of stars” (Line 12). The speaker’s tone is lightly critical, giving the sense that they feel the addressee should be as ashamed as Love.