Tonight’s poem is a strange love poem. The young poet imagines the woman he loves as an old lady, sitting by the fire, reading his poems. And he tells her: many men loved your beauty, but one man loved your soul.
Learn from Songs · Poetry · B2
When You Are Old
Yeats’s quiet love poem to Maud Gonne, the woman who refused to marry him: when + present simple for the future, imperatives (take down this book, and slowly read), how many… but one…, and the past perfect of memory, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
DEMETRIA
That’s beautiful. Did she marry him?
SOPHIA
No. Her name was Maud Gonne. Yeats asked her to marry him several times over many years, and she always said no. But the poem is still read all over the world.
MARCOS
So she was the one who lost out.
Before you listen: the song
London, 1891–1893
In 1889, the young W. B. Yeats met Maud Gonne, a tall, brilliant English-born actress and activist who campaigned for Irish independence. He said that his life’s troubles began on that day. He wrote many poems for her, and proposed to her several times; she refused every time, and married someone else.
“When You Are Old” was published in 1893 in Yeats’s collection The Rose. It is based loosely on a famous French sonnet by Pierre de Ronsard, written three hundred years earlier, but Yeats made it gentler and sadder.
In the poem, the speaker asks the woman to imagine herself old and grey, by the fire. When she is old, she should take down his book of poems and remember: many loved her beauty, but one man loved the pilgrim soul in her.
True love sees the soul, not only the face.
When You Are Old
W. B. Yeats (1865–1939)
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.
Words in the poem
full of sleep: very sleepy
nodding: your head falling forward as you fall asleep
take down: take from the shelf
glad grace: happy, elegant charm
false or true: insincere or sincere
pilgrim soul: a soul that is always searching, travelling
sorrows: sadnesses
glowing bars: the hot metal bars of the fire grate
murmur: say very quietly
fled: ran away (flee → fled)
paced: walked slowly up and down
amid: among
Read and listen: the old woman by the fire
PHILO
Read the poem. Who is the old woman? What will she do? What did “one man” love that the others didn’t?
SOPHIA
Then listen to a reading, and answer Section A.
📖 Listen to the song: “When You Are Old” (W. B. Yeats, 1893).Find a reading →
When + present simple for the future; imperatives
MARCOS
When you are old, take down this book, and slowly read, and dream.
SOPHIA
After when we use the present simple, even for the future: When you are old, not “when you will be old”. The main verbs are imperatives: gentle instructions, almost a prayer.
How many…, but one…
DEMETRIA
How many loved your moments of glad grace… But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you.
SOPHIA
How many + past in an exclamation = so many people: How many have tried and failed! Then but one = only one, in contrast. A strong pattern for speeches and poems.
Love personified
PHILO
Love fled, and paced upon the mountains, and hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
SOPHIA
Personification = describing an idea as a person: Love walks, runs away, hides. Notice the past simple: in the old woman’s memory, love is already gone.
Sophia’s comparison: Ecclesiastes and Sappho
PHILO
Ecclesiastes says: remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near when you will say, I have no pleasure in them; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened.
SOPHIA
And Sappho, in one of her poems, says that her hair has turned white and her knees no longer carry her to dance. But she still loves the beauty of the sun. Old age, she says, comes to everyone; love of beauty doesn’t have to leave.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| when + present simple | future time clause | When you are old, take down this book. |
| imperatives | gentle instructions | Take down this book, and slowly read. |
| How many + past…! | so many people | How many loved your beauty! |
| but one | only one, in contrast | But one man loved your soul. |
| personification | an idea acts like a person | Love fled and hid his face. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. Who is the poem addressed to?
2. What does he ask her to imagine?
3. What should she take down?
4. What did “one man” love?
5. What did Maud Gonne do when Yeats proposed?
6. Which older poet’s sonnet is the poem based on?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. When you old, take down this book. (be)
8. down this book. (imperative)
9. How loved your beauty!
10. But man loved the pilgrim soul in you.
11. Love and hid his face. (flee)
12. When I home, I’ll call you. (get)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “When you will be old, you will remember.”
14. “Take down this book and slowly read.”
15. “How many people loved her beauty!”
16. “Love fleed into the mountains.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Old age portraits. Imagine yourself at eighty. In pairs, describe: When I am old, I will… What will you remember?
Discuss. 1. Is it romantic or a little unkind to tell someone they will be old one day? 2. What is a “pilgrim soul”? 3. Is it better to be loved for your beauty or for your soul?
Write (100–120 words). When you are old. Write a short letter or poem to someone you love, to be read when they are old. Use when + present simple, imperatives, and How many…, but one…
Now play the gamebook: an old woman, a box of letters, and a love from long ago.Play the gamebook →