When You Are Old

6.
When You Are Old

by W.B. Yeats
AAbout the Poet:
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is an Irish poet and one of the foremost
figures of 20th-century literature. His early poetry is part of the Celtic twilight
or the Irish Literary Revival and it uses the history, myths, and heroic figures of
Ireland. Yeats wrote plays, was one of the founders of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin,
and was witness to the revolutionary .He is one of the great love poets of the
world.
Background:-
In this love poem, the speaker (who is the lover) imagines his beloved in the
future when she is old and reading the book of poems he is now writing. Reading the
book she will remember the past, her youthful beauty, and the many who admired her.
While the others loved her physical beauty and grace, only he loved her soul and
her soul's search for something meaningful. However,Most critics opine that this
poem is a real description of the poet's love. In 1889 Yeats met his great love
Maud Gonne, an actress, and Irish revolutionary. However, she married Major John
Macbride in 1903, and this episode inspired Yeats to write down this heart stirring
poem. Many critics believe that the poem presents the resentment he feels towards
her for not reciprocating his love. The Yeats to write down this heart stirring
poem. Many critics believe that the poem presents the resentment he feels towards
her for not reciprocating his love. The ambiguity of the last stanza of the poem
illustrates that the poem is not only about the regret the woman feels when she
becomes aware of what she has lost, it also strengthens the argument that this work
is actually about the resentment he wants the woman to perceive.
Summary
'When You Are Old' was written to express the writer's true and unforgettable love.
The theme is a painful one of unrequited love, which the poet manipulates in an
interesting manner. Instead of focusing upon the present or the past, the poet
looks to the future, a future in which the two people in the poem are destined to
be forever apart. The poet imagines an unreal condition that the woman he loved
became old and felt regret for refusing his true love.
That is why the poem begins with the presumption that an old and grey lady
was sitting beside the fire nodding her head. She is imagined to be reminiscing her
memories when she recalls the soft look that her eyes had once, and how many
suitors tried to court her, being charmed by her elegance and beauty.
While admitting that many suitors were attracted by her youthful beauty, the
speaker tries to tell her that he was the only lover who loved the pilgrim soul in
her. He wants her to know that he was attracted by the beauty of her inner self and
his love would remain constant even after she grows old. He assures her that he
loves even the sorrows of her changing face. He means to say that over a period of
time her beauty will have faded away and she will have grown old with her face
having shrunk and skin having been wrinkled indicating that she has passed through
many difficulties and sorrows.
He concludes visualizing that she is now bending down beside the dying
fire, and tells herself in a
whisper in a regretful tone that her true love has fled and is hiding his face amid
a crowd of stars.
The most important aspect of this poem is the point of view taken by the
narrator. The narrator is asking a woman, who is still young, to a time when she is
past her prime youth.The poet tries to put her mind in the future when she is an
'old and gray' woman, 'full of sleep', to 'slowly read' a book of memories from her
youth.
She remembers her faded beauty that was admired by many but then recalls the
only man, the narrator, who loved her for her unique soul. He loved her even as she
grew less beautiful and as her personality changed in the fullness of time. The
alliteration 'glad grace' expresses that when she is young, beautiful and in her
best moments of life many will be interested in her, but their love for her will be
just false or superficial love. However, the narrator (speaker) will love her
anyway no matter what happens to her beauty.
The line "and loved the sorrows of your changing face" suggests that when
she gets old her face gets shrunk. So her face looks different but he will just
love her with the same love he always had. There is also a contrast between 'glad
grace' and 'sorrows of your changing face', which suggests that while the others
love her in her happy times, he will love her every time, including the worst ones.
line, "but one man loved the pilgrim soul in you," refers to the long walk
that her soul has had, searching for real happiness, but really being alone. So,
many lovers can love her for how she looks but only he can love her for who she
really is. 'Pilgrim Soul' has reference to the Biblical belief that every soul is a
pilgrim, on the way to salvation and redemption. The speaker, by referring to this
aspect of the beloved rather than to her beauty and fame, evokes oneness with the
inner and not the external self.
In this stanza, the speaker exhorts the loved one to remember him in later
years as she sits beside the fire and bends over the embers of the fire. The
onomatopoeic 'murmur' suggests a whisper that shows that she has no passion or zest
left. This adds to the imagery of age and weariness. 'A little sadly' suggests that
in later years, as she remembers the speaker, she should feel regretful. The poet
uses the word 'love' in all the lines in the second stanza and in the third stanza,
second line, he capitalizes the word 'Love', giving it much intensity. He
personifies 'Love' in the second line. In the lines,
'pacing' suggests that she was given a chance as 'Love' waited for her; it also
suggests the gradual diminishing of the love which may then loiter over mountains
for a while and then disappear. Being on the 'mountains overhead' suggests that
'Love' waited on a higher plain than that which she inhabited. Capitalized 'L' for
love suggests that it is not just a person that she has lost but the ultimate,
true, and everlasting possibility of love. The phrase 'how love fled' refers to the
possibility that the speaker's love would just fly far away because she is not
receptive to his love.

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6.

When You Are Old

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