Saturday, August 30, 2008

When You Are Old by WB Yeats

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.


*Note: After reading this poem, click on the above title to see a video of Matthew Mcfayden reading this poem.

2 comments:

Maggie May said...

god i love this poem ' the pilgrim soul in you ' ...my husband loves me this way...i am so lucky.

Roxie said...

Dude, you are yourself old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the TV. Wake up your IPad
And check out the Facebook page of your old loves
See the life that still is, you dweeb.

Forget your romantic illusion of her glad grace
forget that you loved her with love mostly false not true
Don't talk to her about her pilgrim soul and crap.
Send her a message on My Space.

Did you seriously think she'd be bending by a fire
and murmuring how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
Like some stupid broad who think she's almost dead?

Get over yourself, Yeats. You're words only sound too damn true. Like many women, with gendered sensibilities shaped by men, objectified
until they can't get back inside their own heads,
I buy momentarily into your romantic illusion and sigh.

I'm over it. Roxie
(Check out www.sixtysomethingorother.blogspot.com for complete posting on Yeats.)