When You are Old

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WHEN YOU ARE OLDBy

William Butler Yeats

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INTRO

Broken heart

LOVE

Yeats’ personal experienc

e

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ANALYSISWhen You Are Oldby William Butler Yeats  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.  Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)

analysis

poetic device

s

theme

point of

view

symbol

tone

style

Click here to listen to the poem!

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POETIC DEVICES

Poetic Device

s

rhyme

meter

imagery

repetition

alliteration

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RHYME

End Rhyme

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METER

This poem uses iambic pentameter.

Iambic, the poem is started by unstressed and followed by stressed, two

syllables. Pentameter, the poem consist of five foots.

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REPETITION

The author utilizes the word “and” several times, for instance, in the first stanza. This gives the stanza a rhythmic beat and structure and extends the pome giving it a feeling of old age.

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ALLITERATION

Alliteration of long sounds, esp. l’s and w’s, in essence to give the poem a very drawn out and sleepy feel.Also, the author employs spondaic foot.

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STANZAIC FORMS

Quatrain i.e. four lines in each stanza with a rhyme pattern of “a b b a”

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IMAGERY

Personification of “love”. It elaborates the themes of romance and loss.

Besides, the capitalization of the word “Love” may entail personification about

whom she loved.

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Theme• Regret

Point of View • Second person

Tone• Sad

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SYMBOL

Words/Phrases“Gray and old and full of sleep”

“Fire”

“mountains overhead” and “crowd of stars”

InterpretationsAn elderly woman

Warmth or comfort and her want for the fiery love she once rejected

something the elderly woman can always see and always know is there, but never fully reach

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COMMENT

Distressing ending of this poem suggests

the readers esp. women to reconsider their

future and not to grow old without anyone

by their side.

You won’t notice the real value of the things

you have until you don’t have them

anymore.