Analysis W13: "When You Are Old"

William Butler Yeats, was known as, one of the greatest English-language poets of the twentieth century. His masterful usage of imagery is seen throughout his poems. According to an article “What is Concrete Imagery in Poetry,” imagery in poetry is the ability to use descriptive words that allows the reader to form a visual picture in their minds (Edrington). In other words, it is where you, as the reader can experience the story along with the author.

As we analyze the poem, "When You Are Old " we can see the author’s use of concrete imagery and he immediately demands our attention. One can assume he is speaking to his lover, actress Maud Gonne, who read about on page 520 of the introduction. As mentioned, he was in love with her, but she repeatedly refused his proposal to marriage. It is for this reason we understand why the author is predicting what appears to be Gonne’s pitiful fate. In the first stanza, with the author’s choice of words “old and gray” and “full of life” readers can visualize a woman in her old age and of dull existence. We can also visualize through the author’s use of imagery concerning Gonne’s eyes “shadows deep” that she was once a woman of substance, and a full of life. The author desires Gonne to visual herself in her old age, sitting by the fireplace with the author’s book in her hand reminiscing on her life while being filled with regret. The author assures her that the men in her life, who claim for love her, whether that love be true or false, is only fascinated with her external beauty and “moments of glad grace.” This statement could be describing the attractiveness of her fame; the men were in love with the idea of what she represented. However, the author reminds her in the next line that she would come to realize his love was not shallow. He was the one man who loved the “pilgrim soul within her.” They were soul mates and they really knew each other beyond the surface. The words “pilgrim soul” also suggest what they had experienced together was sacred and it would last beyond the momentary infatuation that the other men had with her.

In reading the last stanza, we find ourselves standing in the distance with the author, as well as with Gonne, visualizing her in her old age, starring at the “glowing bars” which could be the flames and embers fanning themselves against the fire grate. We can see her rethinking her decision not to marry the one man who truly knew and loved her. Wondering will she be left with nothing else but “the memory of him fading in the distance” wishing she would have said, "yes." The author leaves his lover with a daunting ultimatum.

The author’s usage of concrete imagery not only captivates us but leaves us invested in the outcome of the story.


                                                         

                                                                       Work Cited

Edrington, Allison. "What Is Concrete Imagery in Poetry?", http://penandthepad.com. Accessed 19 April 2018. 

Yeats, Butler William. “When You Are Old” The Norton Anthology World Literature. Martin Puchner. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012, p.522. Book.