“When You Are Old”
William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939
Sometimes I find books and sometimes books find me. I was browsing used magazines at our public library when a new book on sale for a dollar came to me. The slim hardcover’s title, Selected Poems of William Butler Yeats, promised more joy that anything else a dollar could buy. (Of course, I snapped it up. The great Irish poet of the 20th century is always welcome on my bookshelves.)
Here’s one I read as soon as I paid the clerk:
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.
