When you are old

• Poet


  W.B Yeats
• Context


  Written during his uncertain relationship with Maude Gonne. She later rejected him. It was anunrequited loveand she refused his proposal of marriage many times although they remained friends
• What happens in the poem

  Yeats asks Gonne to imagine a time when she is no longer glamorous. He asks her to take a book designed to help herrecall her former glories.It seems like an attempt to warn Gonne what her life will be like if she rejects his genuine love for her. This didn't work as Gonne marriedJohn Mcbride, an Irish nationalistwhom yeats hated

  
• Voice


  Second person narrationgives a universal quality. It isautobiographical.Direct address "you" makes the poem personal and gives the idea of love transcending
• Structure


  All one sentence split across three quatrains. The first and thirds stanza focus on the future and the second stanza focuses on the past
• "old" "grey"


  Combine to create a negative image of her

  
• "Full of sleep"


  Negative and could besymbolicof how she is nearingdeath.Yeats employs aeuphemismhere. Was she asleep to his love?

  
• First line


  Direct addressandmonosyllabicwords emphatically state how this woman will change in the future. Very misogynistic depiction of a woman's future
• "and"


  Repetitionof "and" creates alisting effect.The frequent pausesslow the pacecreating asoporific quality. Thesibilanceadds to this effect

  
• "take" and "dream"


  Imperatives imply the speaker is in control.
• "this book"


  This book is probably a book in which Yeats love for Gonne and Gonne herself are immortalised

  
• "slowly...soft...look"


  Assonanceadds to the softness of the words and creates anostalgic tonein the slow pace
• "loved"


  Verbisrepeatedfour times to stress its significance for the speaker and the subject. It usespasttense to reflect upon the admirers Gonne had
• "glad grace"


  Thealliterationconveys atoneof admiration
• "false" and "true"


  Juxtaposition conveys that many loved Gonne in asuperficialway unlike Yeats. There isimplied criticismthat she didn't know the difference in her youth
• "Pilgrim soul"


  Ironyis created as he is like a pilgrim worshipping her. It isambiguousand may refer to Gonnes support forIrishnationalism and freedom.Allusionsto Romeo and Juliet
• "Many"


  Contrasts with how he presents himself as one man, demonstrating his unique love
• "The sorrows of your changing face"


  Indicates timeless and unconditional nature of his love in theadjective"changing"
• Stanza 3


  Tonal shift. It is much sadder and does not celebrate her former glories. it gives power to the speaker. The pronoun "you" is not used at all, structurally conveying how all love for her has been lost.
• "murmur" and "sadly"


  The verbs convey how the speaker wants her to regret her decision
• Stanza 3, "And"


  The conjunction is repeated 3 times here and 11 times overall combining with pauses to create a slow pace and more poignant tone
• "Love" and "fled"


  Love, is personified and capitalised because it specifically refers to Yeats who could have been the love of her life. This personnification addss energy to the verb "fled" as it serves as a warning his love will be forever lost.

  
• "Hid"


  Conveys a sense of shame perhaps due to the embarrassment as Gonne rejected his proposal
• "Pacing upon Mountains overhead"


  Imagery of mountains and stars is deliberate. Yeats places himself on a height above her. Whilst he implies her careerr will be in decline, his repuataion will be soaring.

  
• "Crowd of stars"


  His career will be so successful whereas Gonne's star will have faded. Metaphor for the crowd of admirers Gonne once had

  
• "Glowing bars" and "Crowd of stars"


  Light imagery employed is linked by rhyme. It connotes brightness and energy which contrasts with the depiction of Maude Gonne as an old woman in stanza 1
• Links


  - I am very bothered

  - I carry your heart

  - Wild oats

  - Remember