An Audio Guide to Poetry Recitation - 22. "When You Are Old"

An Audio Guide to Poetry Recitation - 22. "When You Are Old"


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Now the poet Diane Thiel.

[Voice of Diane Thiel]
This Yeats poem When You Are Old is an old favorite of mine, because of the way it imagines the future. I remember when I first read the poem, the line "one man loved the pilgram soul in you", I felt as if the poem was written directly for me. And I think that's one of the experiences that I really love about poetry, that we can read certain lines and feel as if the poet was looking right into our eyes.

William Butler Yeats, When You Are Old:

When You Are Old
by William Butler Yeats
[Read by Diane Thiel]

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.