Скачать или смотреть When You Are Old, A Poem by William Butler Yeats (Song Version)

When You Are Old, A Poem by William Butler Yeats (Song Version)
About the Poem: “When You Are Old”

“When You Are Old” is a lyric poem about time, memory, love, and loss. The speaker imagines the beloved in old age, looking back on life and remembering how she was loved.

Core ideas

Love versus attraction
Many people loved the woman for her beauty and charm — some sincerely, some superficially.
Only one person loved her inner self, which Yeats calls “the pilgrim soul” — her searching, changing, spiritual nature.

Time and regret
The poem is framed in the future: when you are old.
This creates a quiet sense of regret — the recognition of true love comes too late, when youth and choice are gone.

Love as something that escapes
Love is personified as something that fled, paced upon the mountains, and hid among the stars.
This suggests that love is:

elusive

fragile

easily missed

Stillness and intimacy
The setting — an old woman by the fire, nodding with a book — is calm and intimate.
The poem is not dramatic; its power lies in its soft sadness.

About the Poet: W. B. Yeats (1865–1939)

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, playwright, and Nobel Prize winner (1923). He is one of the most important figures in modern poetry.

Key aspects of Yeats

Irish identity:
He was deeply involved in Irish cultural and political life and helped shape modern Irish literature.

Romantic and symbolic style:
Yeats often used:

myth

symbolism

nature

stars, fire, dreams, and spiritual imagery

Lifelong obsession with love and aging:
Many of his poems explore:

unfulfilled love

the passage of time

youth versus old age

Personal context of the poem

This poem is widely understood to be inspired by Maud Gonne, a woman Yeats loved deeply for decades. She repeatedly rejected his marriage proposals.

Yeats loved her passionately

She did not return his love in the same way

This poem reflects his belief that she would one day recognize what she had lost

That context explains the poem’s gentle bitterness — it is tender, but not innocent.

Why the poem endures

Simple language, deep feeling

Musical rhythm (which is why it adapts well to song)

Universal experience: realizing the value of love after time has passed

It speaks quietly, but it stays with the reader.

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