When you are old
W. B. Yeats’ poem “When You Are Old” was first published in his 1892 collection “The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics” and included in “The Rose” the following year.
William Butler Yeats was born on 13 June 1865 in Sandymount, Ireland, and he died on 28 January 1939 in Menton, France, at the age of 73.A poet, dramatist, and writer, Yeats was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish literary revival and became a pillar of the Irish literary establishment, helping to found the Abbey Theatre. In his later years, he served two terms as a senator of the Irish Free State.
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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.