POEM ANALYSIS: WHEN YOU ARE OLD

POEM ANALYSIS

WHEN YOU ARE OLD

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.

                                                                                                            William Butler Yeats

1. PARAPHRASE

The speaker is a lover addressing his beloved and wondering how she would look when she grows old. The speaker describes his lady with gray hair as old, sleepy, and sitting by the fire. The speaker asks her to take the book of his poems written for her and read it. When she starts reading from his book, she will dream of the tender stare her eyes had when she was young, and of their profound gloominess. The speaker describes her beauty and how she was loved by everyone for that beauty. She will remember these men that have loved these instants when they were rejoicing her beauty and her charm either sincerely or falsely. Yet, the speaker stresses that there is only one man who truly loved her for her spirit, and not only for her beauty. Finally, the speaker portrays his lady bending down by the fireplace to whisper with sadness telling us that she rejected his love out of pride.

2. RHYTHM

The first line                When you | are old | and grey | and full | of sleep,

This line consists of ten syllables with five meters. Each meter consists of unstressed and stressed, so it is called Iambic Pentameter.

The use of punctuation, and the repeated use of “and”, Yeats manipulates the pace of the poem and encourages the reader to slow down. This also gives the stanza a rhythmic beat and structure and extends the poem giving it a feeling of old age.

3. RHYME

When you are old and gray 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;                  

‘When You Are Old’ is a poem that makes use of a number of sound patterns. As we can see in the first stanza, it uses ABBA rhyming scheme. The use of rhyme and the fixed rhythm gives the poem a romantic and beguiling quality.

•        Alliteration

The poet’s use of alliteration adds to the pace and mood of the poem, as well as giving certain lines a hypnotic and memorable quality. If we look at the third stanza we can see a good example of this:

And bending down beside the glowing bars

Also, in the second stanza, notice that the poet uses repetition. Three times we see the key word “loved”, which of course emphasizes the central theme of the poem.

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;

•        Assonance

Assonance occurs when the same vowel sounds are used close together, often in the same line. This adds to the music of the poem and helps to create a rich and nostalgic feeling. If we look at line 8 we see the pattern of ‘u’ vowel sounds repeated in the same word “murmur”:

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

Looking at the entire stanza we can see a number of examples of assonance with the slender “e” and broad “a” and “u” vowel sound:

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.

Assonance only occurs when the vowel sound is the same in two words. So, while “bars” and “stars” have assonance, “bar” does not have assonance with “paced” because the “a” sound is different in the two words. “Paced” is, however, assonant with “face”. If we look at the words with the “e” sound we will again see that only words that have the same “eh” sound have assonance (‘bending’, ‘fled’, ‘overhead’).

4. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

             Metaphor

1. “When you are old and gray and full of sleep”

The phrase “full of sleep” is a metaphor.

·  Denotative meaning: sleeping that leads to dreaming.

·  Connotative meaning: the death.

2.  “And nodding by the fire, take down this book”.

       In this line, “Nodding by the fire” is used as a metaphor.

·  Denotative meaning: an old person who lower and raise her head slightly and briefly by a fire place.

·  Connotative meaning: an old person who is slowly falling asleep by a fire place with the weight of time on her shoulders bringing her down.

3. “And bending down beside the glowing bars”

·  Denotative meaning: lean the body downwards beside the fire place bars.

·  Connotative meaning: seeking warmth or comfort -- suggesting the desire and need for the fiery love she once rejected.

 Personification

1. “Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled”

Love is a noun, but the poet made it as a person who can flee.

·  Denotative meaning: love which ran away.

·  Connotative meaning: the man who loved her was gone and left her forever.

2. “And hid his face amid a crowd of stars”

            The word “his” refers to love as in previous line. It is also a personification because love cannot hide.

·  Denotative meaning: love hid its face among the stars in the night sky.

·  Connotative meaning: the man has become part of the immortal group of artists whose name will live on forever.

                Imagery

“When you are old and grey and full of sleep”

In the first stanza, Yeats uses words such as old, grey and full sleep which describes a lady with grey hair as old, sleepy, and sitting by the fire remembering how once she use to be young and beautiful.

5. SYMBOLISM

•           Fire

Denotative: the state of burning, in which substances combine chemically with oxygen from the air and typically give out bright light, heat, and smoke.

           Connotative: the fiery rawness of a past love.

•         Book

Denotative: a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound with covers.

Connotative: reading someone’s face.

•         Mountain

Denotative: an elevation of the earth’s surface rising abruptly and to a large height from the surrounding level.

Connotative: love that is very distant.

•         Shadows deep

Denotative: a very intents dark area or shape produced by body coming between rays of light and a surface.

Connotative: expressing the difficulties and sadness hidden in the look of the eyes that can only be seen by someone who really cares.

•         Pilgrim

           Denotative: a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons.

           Connotative: the long walk that her soul has had searching for real happiness.

•         Glowing bars

            Denotative: a long rod or rigid piece of wood or metal to place the fire.

Connotative: showing how her beauty has faded over time; like the fire, she was once vibrant.

6. SUBJECT MATTER

            The subject matter of “When you are Old” is unrequited love.

7. THEME

The theme of “When you are Old” is that it is important to recognize a true love when one is young, because things change when one grows old and one will feel regretful.    

8. REASON

            In this poem, the speaker pointed out how a woman was loved by so many men when she was young and beautiful. However, there was only one man who really loved her soul and body, whether in her happiness or sadness. But, the woman rejected the man’s love and now, when she is old, she realizes the value of the love she lost, she grows regretful that she did not see how he loved her and how unwise she was for not taking notice of it which made her lives alone in her impending death.