When You Are Old

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1893

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

The poem consists of three stanzas of four lines each. Technically, these stanzas are quatrains, because they consist of four lines. Similar in structure and meter to a sonnet, a traditional love poem, Yeats uses iambic pentameter in “When You Are Old,” but does not finish the poem with a couplet that would put the poem at fourteen lines. Iambic pentameter is a line that has 10 syllables in it, with 5 metric “feet,” or small groups of syllables paired together. For example, in the first line of the poem, the second syllable of the foot takes the emphasis:

When you | are old | and grey | and full | of sleep,

Overall, Yeats’s use of traditional, formal structure that deploys a highly recognizable meter signals to the reader that he is engaging with a tradition of more courtly love poems. However, as noted earlier, with the loss of the final couplet that would make this poem a sonnet, Yeats likewise signals that the love that is central to this poem has similarly been ‘cut short,’ as it flees from the beloved to the stars.

Tone

Each stanza possesses its own tone, created through careful word choice and images. In the first stanza, the speaker uses words like “old” (Line 1), “grey” (Line 1), and “sleep” (Line 1) to create the sense of aging. The speaker’s address to “you” (Line 1) establishes a tone of instruction and invites the reader more fully into the poem. Phrases like “had once” (Line 4) create the tone of longing.

In the second stanza, the speaker uses the past tense and repeats the past tense verb “loved” (Line 5, Line 6) to create emphasis as well as a tone of admiration. The speaker again reiterates “loved” (Line 7), again emphasizing their admiration for the beloved. The speaker then uses the conjunction “But” (Line 7) to create a shift in the poem and implies that the “one man” is actually the speaker.

In the third stanza, the tone shifts yet again. It becomes distant because of the personification of Love. The speaker distances themself from the situation through personification. The speaker uses words like “fled” (Line 10) and “paced” (Line 11), as well as a mountain setting to create this distance. The distancing creates finality and the understanding that the past’s actions cannot be undone.

Rhyme

The poem’s rhyme scheme is ABBA in all four stanzas. The poem relies on end rhyme throughout, and the end rhyme makes the poem melodious. For example, in the first stanza, “sleep” (Line 1) rhymes with “deep” (Line 4), and “book” (Line 2) rhymes with “look” (Line 3). The rhyme also works to balance the poem thematically. For example, in the second stanza, the word “grace” (Line 5) balances “face” (Line 8), which the speaker describes as “changing” (Line 8). In the same stanza, “true” (Line 6) aligns with and balances “you” (Line 7), and conveys the speaker’s actual perceptions of the beloved. In the third stanza, “bars” (Line 9) rhymes with “stars” (Line 12). The usage of the word “bars” (Line 9) creates the sense of imprisonment, while the usage of the word “stars” (Line 12) creates the sense of breaking free. In the final stanza’s middle lines, “fled” (Line 10) rhymes with “overhead” (Line 11), and both words work together to create the sense of breaking free. The use of iambic pentameter also adds rhythm to the poem, with the alternating stressed and unstressed syllables driving the poem’s momentum.

Personification

Personification is when a writer gives inanimate objects human qualities. In “When You Are Old,” the speaker personifies Love. The speaker describes Love as having “fled” (Line 10) to “the mountains overhead” (Line 11) where it “paced” (Line 11). The speaker’s description implies that though love disappeared, it did not abandon the speaker or the beloved completely. It still exists at a distance. The speaker concludes the poem by describing Love as hiding “his face among a crowd of stars” (Line 12). Here, Love expresses the emotion of shame. This expression of emotion fully personifies Love, as emotional expression is a key to interpersonal communication and self-awareness.

Interestingly, the personification of love, and the presence of “one man” (Line 7), allow the speaker themselves to remain distant, if not disembodied, from the poem. It is implied that the speaker is the man himself, but the speaker never says “I,” having removed himself from the beloved’s life (or having been removed by her). Instead, the speaker becomes an observer/fabricator of her memories, as the beloved is left alone with herself and Love, who has fled to the mountain top and the stars.