A PROJECT

ON POEM
(WHEN YOU ARE OLD)

[Submitted as a partial fulfilment of B.A.L.L.B(Hons) 5-year integrated course]

Submitted on: 8 January 2022

Submitted by: Submitted to:

JAISHRI SHEKHAWAT Dr PRIYANKA KHETAN

Roll no. 43

Sem 1 Section A

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 DECLARATION

I, JAISHRI SHEKHAWAT hereby declare that this project entitled (when you are old) is based
on the original research work carried out by me under the guidance and supervision of my
English teacher DR PRIYANKA KHETAN.

The interpretations put forth are based on my reading and understanding of the original texts,
the books, articles and the websites etc which have been relied upon by me have been duly
acknowledged at the respective places in text.

For the present project which I am submitting to the University, no degree or diploma has been
conferred on me before, either in this or any other University.

DATE: JAISHRI SHEKHAWAT

Roll no. 43
Semester 1 A

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 CERTIFICATE

DR PRIYANKA KHETAN Date:

Faculty

University Five Year law college

This is to certify that Ms JAISHRI SHEKHAWAT of 1st semester of university Five Year
law college, University of Rajasthan has carried out the Project entitled “When you are old”
under my supervision and guidance. The student has completed research work in my stipulated
time and according to the norms prescribed for the purpose.

Supervisor

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the accomplishment of this project successfully, many people have best owned upon their
blessings and heart pledged support, this time I am utilising to thank all people concerned with
this project.

First of all, I would like to thank our Director DR ARUNA CHOUDHARY for giving me an
opportunity. I would like to thank our supervisor DR PRIYANKA KHETAN whose valuable
guidance and suggestions helped me complete this project within time.

I would like to thank our librarian and library staff that have been great support throughout.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank my parents and friends for their valuable suggestions
which helped me in completing this project successfully.

JAISHRI SHEKHAWAT

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

1 Front Page

2 Declaration

3 Certificate

4 Acknowledgement

5 Table Of content

6 About the Poet

7 About the Poem

8 When you are old explanation

9 Summary and analysis

10 Poetic devices

11 Comparative study

12 Conclusion

13 Bibliography

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 ABOUT THE POET

(WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS 1865-1939)

William Butler Yeats was one of the most celebrated noble Poet of this poetic society of the
20th century. He was born in Sandymount, Ireland on 13 June 1865.

He got famous as an Irish poet, dramatist, prose writer and one of the foremost figures of his
century. He was a cultural and nationalist person.

His poem covers the theme of wide-ranging areas as love, politics, old age art, aristocracy,
violence, history, myth, courtesy hatred, innocence, anarchy, nostalgia.

His father was John Butler Yeats, who was a barrister who later became a painter. His mother
was Susan. His first poem was “The Islands of Statues”.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1923 was awarded to William butler Yeats for his always inspired
poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.

He married to Georgiana lees at the age of 52 when she was 25. He had 2 children with her
William Butler Yeats died on 28 January 1939 in France due to congestive heart failure at the
age of 73 years.

Some of his famous creations are: The wild swans (1917) A Vision (1925), the tower (1928)
And words for music perhaps and other poems (1932).

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 ABOUT THE POEM

“When You Are Old’’ is a beautiful poem that expresses the intricacies of love. The poem is
often taken to refer to Maud Gonne, an Irish actress. The poem is promoting a love that is not
physical appearance which fades over time - but on the deep beauty of the soul.

In the first paragraph the poet invites the speaker to think about the time when she will be old,
tired and grey. Then she will recall her youthful looks and power as if it were a dream. Those
who love the person will question now that is, at the time of writing of the poem, when the
woman is apparently still young – are portrayed as arrogant and not hypocritical. The speaker
suggests that the so-called love of the man to whom he is speaking will perish just as the
foundation of that love the beauty and youthfulness of that one – will disappear.

The speaker describes his love for the person that he is talking about with the inferior love that
he described. The love of the speaker will withstand the test of time because it is based on the
‘pilgrim soul’ of the speaker and the grief of her changing face. The speaker notices the inner
rest of the woman’s soul and suggests that this will manifest itself in her “changing face” as
she ages. Then the speaker says that we receive a love that goes beyond that the face of the
person you are talking to may change over time but the soul of the speaker will not.

This poem expresses a complex feeling, which proves the power of love and its limits. There
is indeed a spark of bitterness in the way the speaker predicts that the poem itself is a reminder
of how love “fled” from the speaker. But no matter how sophisticated, there is no doubt that
the speaker has the power to feel --- and in this poem the reader is reminded that true love of
that kind is not always easy, simple or pure.

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 WHEN YOU ARE OLD-Explanation

1. When You are Old and Grey and full

Of sleep,
And nodding by the Fire, Take
This Book,
And slowly read, and dream of the
Soft look
Your eyes had once, and of Their
Shadows deep;

EXPLANATION: When you (my Dear) are getting old and your hair is grey, and
when you sometimes you look around the fire for sleep, you should take this book that
I am writing and will read this poem. This poem will remind you of how beautiful you
were, and how soft and deep your eyes were when you were young.

1. How many loved your moments of

Glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love
False and true,
But one man loved the Pilgrim soul
In You,
And loved the sorrows of your
Changing face;

EXPLANATION: You will recall that many men at that time liked you
Because of your attractiveness and beautiful beauty. They loved you for your beauty,
Some for true and some fake. But then you will remember that one person who loved
Your soul and loved you because of the grief of your appearance.

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2. And Bending down Beside the
Glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains
Overheard
And hid his Face amid a Crowd of
Stars.

EXPLANATION: Then, as you bend down near the blazing fire

On the grate, you will complain to yourself that love has left you, and is
Hiding away, in the high mountains and in the starry sky.

In a nut shell the poem is telling Maude Gonne that she needs to get her act together
and open her heart to Yeats, because if she doesn’t she’ll grow shallow and crass and
that love will grow inaccessible to her. That is, now, while Maude Gonne is in her youth,
her heart is still open to the beauty of Yeats’ love and the potential it holds for both of
them. She can climb the mountain easily, and together they can reach for the sky. However,
if instead, Maude Gonne chooses more earthly desires and goals, she will eventually find
herself self-imprisoned in the hell of her own shallowness. Yeats will still love her, but she
will no longer be able to reach for that love. It’ll only be like a fading memory in a book of
old.

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 WHEN YOU ARE OLD SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

The poem when you are was written by William Yeats is basically a love poem written for
Maud Gonne, speaking to her poet says that when she grows up, she should take this book.
He asks her to compare her old age with her youth. Feeling drowsy and shaking her head near
the fire she could compare her grey hair to the soft look and deep shadow that her eyes had at
the beginning of her life. In short, the poet wants Maud Gonne to feel the fear brought on by
old age fullness of sleep. Here sleep can be described as a normal bedtime routine as well as
the laziness or natural fatigue that comes with aging.

In second stage the poet also asks Maud Gonne to remember how many people loved her when
she was young and beautiful, and not all of them had a true love for her for her beauty.
A few of them simply pretended to love him falsely, but there was only one man who loved,
not only her physical beauty but also her pure soul. His love was only spiritual and she must
remember that he loved the pain of old age too. He is going to love her old age and willing to
share the misery of their age.

The speaker told Maud Gonne when she will be lying on bed, bending over to the side of fire
where the outside of the chimney shone red from the heat of the fire, she will speak alone that
with advent of time, the false love of her lovers also disappeared into the mist of the mountains
and stars. According to this the speaker also understands that when compared to her false
lovers, he is the only true lover who loved her from her youth to old age and still loves her.

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 POETIC DEVICES

Literary devices are tools that writers and poets use to make their poem attractive and
By using the words. Yeats has also used many literary devices in his poem. Following are the
Literary devices used in the poem “When you are Old”:

1. Imagery: the use of figurative language to evoke a sensory experience in the reader.
When a poet uses descriptive language well, they play to the reader’s senses,
providing them with sights, tastes, smells, sounds, internal and external feelings, and
even internal emotion.
∑ “And nodding by the fire, take down this book”, “And bending down
beside the glowing bars” and “And paced upon the mountains
overheard”.

2. Symbolism: Symbolism is a literary device in which a writer uses one thing—usually

a physical object or phenomenon—to represent something more abstract. A strong
symbol usually shares a set of key characteristics with whatever it is meant to
symbolize, or is related to it in some other way. Characters and events can also be
symbolic.
∑ “Grey and weak and full of sleep”. Fire for fiery love she rejected, and “crowd
of star” for things she can’t reach.

3. Consonance: Consonance is a literary device in which a consonant sound is repeated in

words that are in close proximity. The repeated sound can appear anywhere in the
words, unlike in alliteration where the repeated consonant sound must occur in the
stressed part of the word.
∑ “And bending down beside the glowing bars” “And paced upon the mountains
overheard”.

4. Alliteration is a phonetic structure and repeated usage of sound or letter used in the first
syllable of a word.
∑ “And hid his face amid a crowd of stars”.
5. Personification: It refers to the practice of attaching human traits and characteristics
with inanimate objects, phenomena and animals.
∑ “Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled”, as if the love is human and it can move.

6. Enjambment: it is used to increase the pace of the poem

∑ “And paced upon the mountains overheard and his face amid a crowd of
stars”.

There are three stanzas in the poem with four lines called quatrain. The rhyme scheme
of the poem is ABBA. End rhyme like “When you are old and grey and full of sleep”.

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 COMPARATIVE STUUDY

Here, we are going to compare our poem “When you are old” with the poem “A Young Man’s
Song”.
Both the poems are written by William Yeats and genre of both the poem is love basically
written for Maud Gonne. As we described earlier that our Author William was in love with
Maud Gonne but she always refused him.

In the first poem speaker is telling that the time has flew and described the female’s old age
and gone beauty now so there is a chance that the author already felt, a sense of rejection,
whereas in the second poem the speaker is giving hope to the young men to chase their love
without hesitating or by encouraging them.

In the first poem the author is talking about the old generation whereas in the second poem
young age and enthusiasm is described.
The second poem has an encouraging tone for people in love because it gives people hope that
there is a chance for them to love. The mood is also similar because it is hopeful for the
Young man to gain love.
Whereas in first poem, every stanza is filled with love but the last stanza is dark; the speaker
is reminding his former mistress that their love did not last, and this is something she should
regret for rest her life.

https://poemanalysis.com https://phdessay.com

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 CONCLUSION

The poem “When You are Old” is a beautiful Romantic poem. It was made in October 1891
by William Yeats for Maud Gonne who was an Anglo Irish, women activist and onscreen
character who always rejected his love. Through this poem poet is showing his beloved the
true nature of love. The author dramatizes his unreturned love by giving warnings like when
she will get old her beauty will fade then all her fake lovers are going to forget her but only,
he liked her soul not only her beauty. She will regret that why she hasn’t accepted the
author’s love. The poem is full of passion, intense feelings and spirituality. It conveys the
message that true love is indestructible and constant, the beauty of soul and body.
The poem starts with lovely lines where poet is saying to her beloved that when she will grow
old, she will read this poem, a book that will help her remember the love of him. You will
remember all the people who loved and cherished your beauty and they will show their true
faces when this beauty will fade away or you will be old. Then you will remember that one
person who always loved your pure soul along with cherishing that beauty, and that time I
will be far away from here somewhere in mountains and stars. That time you will complain to
yourself that love has left you……

The first stanza starts by addressing her to be in her old age. And as she reads this book, she
is taken back in the time to recollect her past. She will regret all who loved her grace but only
poet was the one who liked her soul. At last, the lady will grieve over the loss of her true love
fleeing from her and joining a crowd of stars very distant from her. Thus, the poet expresses
his true intentions while his beloved fails to understand…….

https://fromwordsmith.blogspot.com

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. https://poemanalysis.com
2. https://phdessay.com
3. https://englishnotes.com
4. https://poetryfoundation.com
5. https://shadowofiris.com

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