Analysis of When You Are Old
William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)
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.
Scheme | ABBACDDCEFFE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010111 01010101111 0101011011 111101111 1101110111 0111011111 1111010101 0101011101 0101010101 1001010111 0101010101 0111010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 514 |
Words | 102 |
Sentences | 2 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 12 |
Lines Amount | 12 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 404 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 100 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 31, 2023
- 30 sec read
- 254 Views
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"When You Are Old" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39623/when-you-are-old>.
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