1. By: William Butler Yeats
When You Are Old
By: William Butler Yeats
Audrey King
Period 7
Poetry Project

4. Yeats was born into a family with a well known father, an Irish painter
His family moved to London in 1886, where he focused on Irish school subjects
He never learned Gaelic, but his poetry sources were mainly from Irish mythology and folklore
His style of poetry was Romantic, Modern, Irish Mythology/Legends, and Symbols from Ordinary Life
Yeats won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923
He was the driving force behind Irish Literary Revival
Yeats also helped to fund the Abbey Theater
William became a senator of the Irish Free State
He was part of the Protestant, Anglo-Irish Minority
He joined a secret cult practicing ritual magic in 1890, The Golden Dawn
William Butler Yeats
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

5. Structure 3 Stanzas 12 Lines 4 Lines per StanzaB C D E F
3 Stanzas
12 Lines
4 Lines per Stanza
Lyric: The speaker talks about how one would feel when reminiscing on their good memories of their past
Ballad: The speaker tells a story of peoples’ past, and the good times of their lives

6. Speaker
William Butler Yeats is an older man, meaning he has many memories of a brighter youth
Throughout the poem, the speaker warns the reader to cherish their youth, because their life only gets dimmer and dimmer as they age
When the poem says, “and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once,” it hints at the speaker being a man who has lived his life
The specific details of “old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire,” may hint that Yeats is telling people to do what he has done
If Yeats is the speaker, he has been reminiscing, and you can tell when the poem says, “many loved your moments of glad grace,”

7. Imagery “old and grey and full of sleep,” “nodding by the fire,”
This gives off an image of someone old of age, growing more and more tired every day. They’re slowing down, both physically and mentally.
“nodding by the fire,”
This gives off the image of a fireplace, because the younger years of someone’s life are to appear much brighter when reminiscing and looking back

8. Imagery “loved the sorrows of your changing face;”
This shows someone with many different, rapid emotions. They may be happy one moment, and upset the next.
“bending down beside the glowing bars,”
The glowing bars resemble the younger years of life, being able to reminisce back to when they felt younger, or “brighter”. Like a lightbulb, it glows the most when its newer, but as it gets older, the light begins to dim.

9. Poetic Elements 6 pairs of rhyme (sleep-deep, book-look)
10 syllables in every line
Imagery: “the fire” may resemble the past, because it is bright and vivid; resembling youth and the “brighter” years in a person’s life
End Rhyme: The first and fourth lines of each stanza have end rhyme, along with the second and third lines

10. Literal Meaning
The speaker wants someone to take a book off of a shelf and begin to read it
Throughout someone’s life, they felt loved because they were graceful
Someone’s emotions are ever changing, and another person loved them anyways
The speaker feels as though the feeling of love is hidden overhead, as if it is up in the mountains
The face of someone is hidden in a large crowd; they are hard to be seen or found

11. Figurative Meaning
Nodding by the fire may mean that someone is trying to remember the memories from their life
When you read a book, you take in all of the information on the page and you remember it most of the time. The book in this poem is talking about someone’s life. They are being told to read it, so they can remember the “earlier chapters” of their life
Someone was not of much wealth, and was very simplistic. Although, there was someone who they met, who loved them for all reasons
“Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled” is saying that the person reminiscing is now missing the feeling of the overabundance of love from their youth

12. Theme
A possible theme for “When You Are Old” is ‘cherish good times while they last’
When it says to “slowly read”, the speaker is wanting people to take their time when remembering the good times in their lives
“Bending down beside the glowing bars,” shows that the glowing bars are the youthful years, and that they should not be forgotten
“Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled” shows that the love will be missed by anyone who is no longer as young
“Hid his face amid a crowd of stars” shows that the good memories that someone had are slowly going into hiding as they age

13. Websites Used