Monday 9/27 Favorite Poem

By: Favorite Poem Project  Sep 27, 2004

Guilford C. Prickette, Jr.

Age 33

Counselor

My favorite poem is "When You Are Old," by William Butler Yeats.

Ever since I first read this poem in my high school English Literature class almost 20 years ago, it has resonated with me. At first, I was just attracted to the beauty of the language, and the ways in which Yeats put words together. As I've grown older, the substance of the poem has become more clear to me.

Yeats was writing about that kind of love that is ever present, even when years and distance separate you from the one with whom you share that love. I don't mean to sound too sentimental, because I don't think of this as a sentimental poem. I think of it as a brief flash of foresight that Yeats had, which he shared with the world.

I am grateful for the gift.

When You Are Old William Butler Yeats

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,

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.