Classic Love and Romantic Poetry

When You Are Old
by William Butler Yeats 1865 – 1939

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
Murmurs, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crown of stars.

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