20 pages • 40-minute read
When You Are Old
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Themes
Brevity of Life
The speaker in the poem continually acknowledges that life passes quickly. However, rather than making a direct statement about this, the speaker implies it. They use words like “old” (Line 1) and “grey” (Line 1), words associated with physical aging. The speaker imagines the poem’s addressee longing for the past, and they use the word “dream” (Line 3) to evoke this longing. The speaker also uses the past tense, beginning in line 4 when they use the word “had” (Line 4). The speaker continues using past tense throughout the poem, and the word “loved” (Lines 5-8) is repeated multiple times in the second stanza. The speaker also uses words like “beauty” (Line 6) and the phrase “your changing face” (Line 8) as juxtapositions which work to show the swift passing of time. In the final stanza, the speaker imagines the poem’s addressee “bending down beside the glowing bars” (Line 9). Here, the “glowing bars” can be seen metaphorically, representing youthfulness and the past’s brightness. “Bending down” (Line 9) is related to stooping, an action associated with aging. The poem’s conclusion segues from the literal into the figurative, as the speaker personifies “Love” (Line 10). This segue creates a fleeting sense, as though one stage of life is passing into another, reaching beyond the trappings of earth into the heavens pictured in a “crowd of stars” (Line 12).
Unrequited Love
Yeats’ obsession with Maud Gonne influenced many of his poems, including “When You Are Old.” Many of Yeats’ poems focus thematically on unrequited love. The speaker in “When You Are Old” is attentive to the addressee, and readers sense that the speaker knows the addressee better than anyone else. This attention reveals that the speaker’s devotion makes them observant of even the smallest details about the addressee. The speaker speaks about the addressee with admiration, despite using words like “old” (Line 1) and “grey” (Line 1).
The second stanza, however, is where the speaker’s devotion becomes most evident. In this stanza, the speaker repeats the past tense verb “loved” four times. The speaker observes “How many loved your moments of glad grace” (Line 5), implying that the addressee had many admirers. The speaker continues, observing that those others “loved your beauty with love false or true” (Line 6). The speaker knows that some of the others who admired and loved the addressee had good intentions while others had false ones. The speaker then notes that “one man” (Line 7) loved the addressee beyond these moments of grace. Readers can infer that the speaker’s emphasis on “one man,” (Line 7), which appears at the beginning of a statement and after the conjunction “But” (Line 7), implies that the speaker is the “one man” (Line 7). The speaker states that the “one man loved the pilgrim soul” (Line 7) of the beloved, and “loved the sorrows of [their] changing face” (Line 8). The speaker concludes the second stanza by focusing on how their devotion has surpassed the ravages of time.
In the third stanza, the speaker personifies love. This personification transforms love into a tangible figure rather than an intangible concept. The speaker observes that “Love fled” (Line 10). However, despite Love’s flight, it remained and “paced upon the mountains overhead” (Line 11). The poem ends with Love hiding “his face amid a crowd of stars” (Line 12), but even though Love is hiding, it still remains and exists.
Love and Acceptance as a Necessity for Existence
According to Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs,” love and acceptance are part of a person’s social needs. These needs work with the other needs in the hierarchy to drive human behavior. Other needs include physiological needs (food, water); security and safety needs (financial security, health, wellness); esteem needs (being valued by others); and self-actualization (concerned with personal growth). Sociologists have demonstrated that it is important for people to feel loved.
In “When You Are Old,” the speaker makes it obvious that they love the poem’s addressee. However, the poem only conveys one side of the relationship, and the speaker does not inform the poem’s audience about the other person’s needs or desires. The speaker’s tone and reflection implies that the relationship and feelings were not reciprocal. Part of the speaker’s plea is that they hope the poem’s addressee will one day realize that they made a mistake by not loving the speaker and/or reciprocating the speaker’s feelings. In fact, the poem itself sets up a fantasy scenario where the beloved, now old and gray, sits alone by the fireside, regretting their earlier decision to reject the speaker. The tone is certainly melancholy, for in the final stanza, the speaker uses the phrase “a little sadly” (Line 10) to describe the beloved’s final state. This phrase implies that the speaker hopes that the addressee will have the slightest doubt or regret about the love and devotion they turned away. Again, the personification of love plays an integral role in the speaker’s plea. The speaker personifies love by naming it—“Love” (Line 10). The speaker describes “Love” (Line 10) as having “fled” (Line 10), “paced” (Line 11), and as having “hid” (Line 12). The speaker’s personification emphasizes the necessity of and role of love in one’s life and existence for happiness and wellbeing.
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