When You Are Old by William Butler 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.
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| W B Yeats Maude Gonne |
This
lovely, simple poem can be enjoyed without analysis. Its merits are not buried
deeply or hidden from the reader but, being me, I am going to offer some
analysis anyway.
The
themes of the poem, I would suggest, are growing old, the passing of time and,
slightly less obviously, unrequited love.
The
speaker of the poem, whose voice we hear, is directly addressing the lady he
loves and asking her to think of a future when she has lost her looks and is
“old and grey and full of sleep”. The third line of the second stanza tells us
that “one man loved the pilgrim soul in you”. We learn in the third and final
stanza where the personification of Love has “fled” – that he has been
rejected.
The
poet has used some symbolism (where the words don’t have their literal meaning
but stand for something else). For example when Yeats writes “take down this
book and dream” book is a symbol for reading someone’s
face. Also “mountains overhead” and “crowd
of stars” stand for things that she knows exist but cannot be reached.
This poem was
published in W B Yeat’s second collection of poetry in 1893 it is actually
based upon a 16th century French sonnet. The lady being addressed was the Irish
actress Maud Gonne with whom he had a relationship.
You
may find further symbolism within.
I'm listening to Michael Nesmith's version of his own song Different Drum. It's still the best one despite many covers including Linda Ronstadt with the Stone Poneys and PP Arnold. Have a listen here.
10 comments:
Sometimes, if you are very lucky, the symbolic and literal meanings of a word can be complimentary. "Book" was used here as a symbol for reading someone's face, but the most gentle pleasure of old age is quiet and very private reading.
Mind you, even this meaning will be generationally specific. In 40 years, elderly people won't remember what a book was.
Hello Bazza, All those old poems and songs about "old and gray" seem to ignore the idea that people can grow old gracefully, although I give Yeats much credit in not making general decrepitude the only motivating idea of this poem. Although the narrator (presumably standing in for Yeats himself, assuming that this is a poème-à-clef) does have his share of chutzpah, insisting that his passed-over admiration should be the cause for regret in another person. Although I suppose that today that would be considered the mentally healthy attitude: If my love is not accepted, it's their loss!
--Jim
Hels: Yes, the world is quickly changing. When I see how my grandchildren live their lives via their phones I am astonished and slightly worried!
Jim: Another poem that I love on a similar theme to this one is Andrew Marvel's To His Coy Mistress. The idea that "you had better love me now because tomorrow bits might start falling off" is a fairly consistent one through time....
What I enjoy about short concise poems are the fact that there really is no other way that one could express such a notion in so brief a piece of work!
I hope Hels is wrong about the elderly not knowing what a book is forty years from now. That's a horrifying thought, but then again, perhaps it's inevitable. The times, they are a-changin'.
This is a lovely poem, even if the narrator is a bit vindictive and full of himself.
Yeats looks pensive and Maude looks ticked off. Telling someone that they won’t be as valuable when they get older is insulting. She made the right decision.
Susan: I think the narrator (Yeats himself) was lovesick. Maud Gonne had rejected him and it hurt! In Victorian England young men tended to be a bit melodramatic about that sort of thing.
Arleen: I imagine that he was a bit too serious for her! Being an actress she was probably a bit self-centered (and if any of my actor friends read this - you know it's true! :-)
Hi Bazza - so much could be read into this poem ... as you say - we all gather the lines of wear and tear as we age - but that loss ... is etched in our heart ... sad, but happens to so many. Yet the comfort and pleasure we get from that togetherness of old age and being together is without parallel ... wonderful poem and thank you for your take on it - cheers Hilary
Hilary: There are sometimes countless ways to interpret a poem - and they all correct in their way! There is the theme of ageing but also that of acting now - before it's too late.
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