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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  863. When You are Old

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

William Butler Yeats. b. 1865

863. When You are Old

WHEN you are old and gray 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,         5
  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  10
  And paced upon the mountains overhead, 
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.