Summer Poetry: “When You Are Old” by W.B. Yeats

Sometimes summer poetry may not be about the flowers, or the moon, or the warm weather, but about simply those sometimes bittersweet, fleeting moments we experience during the long summers. One of my favorites of these kinds of poems is William Butler Yeats’s classic “When You Are Old,” which you can find at the Academy of American Poets website.

When You Are Old

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.

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