Skip to main content

When You Are Old by W.B. Yeats | Poems Rethabile Likes

-
When You Are Old by W.B. Yeats | Poems Rethabile Likes

"When You Are Old"

by William Butler Yeats


Actor Cillian Murphy reads "When You Are Old" by W.B. Yeats — a tender, timeless poem of enduring love.

Find his books

W.B. Yeats's "When You Are Old" is one of the most tender and enduring love poems in the English language. Written for Maud Gonne, the woman he loved and proposed to multiple times — and was rejected by — the poem imagines a future in which she looks back on her life and recognizes the one man who loved not just her beauty but her "pilgrim soul."

This recording, by the Irish actor Cillian Murphy, captures the quiet ache and dignity of Yeats's lines. Murphy's voice — soft, measured, with the weight of deep feeling — brings the poem to life in a way that is both intimate and universal.

Here is the poem in full:

When You Are Old 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.

The poem's power lies in its quiet prophecy — the promise that even after beauty fades, a deeper love remains. Yeats transforms his own unrequited love into a gift for the ages, and in Cillian Murphy's reading, that gift feels freshly offered. If you're interested, look up some of Yeats’s sonnets. They're among the best I've ever happened upon

— Rethabile

Guidelines ☼ Archive ☼ Random Poem ☼ Privacy ☼ Disclaimer
Subscribe ☼ Suggest A Poem ☼ ☕ Buy Me Coffee

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Receive a poem a day

-
Image
Subscribe | Poems Rethabile Likes Subscribe Get poems in your inbox Enter your email By subscribing, you agree to receive updates from this blog. See our Guidelines and our Privacy Policy . Powered by Buttondown. Thanks for visiting, reading, and sharing. Poems Rethabile Likes · Guidelines · Privacy · Disclaimer © Poems Rethabile Likes · ...
Read more

Beauty by Warsan Shire | Poems Rethabile Likes

-
Image
Beauty by Warsan Shire | Poems Rethabile Likes Beauty by Warsan Shire My older sister soaps between her legs, her hair a prayer of curls. When she was my age, she stole the neighbour's husband, burnt his name into her skin. For weeks she smelt of cheap perfume and dying flesh. It's 4 a.m. and she winks at me, bending over the sink, her small breasts bruised from sucking. She smiles, pops her gum before saying boys are haram, don't ever forget that. Some nights I hear her in her room screaming. We play Surah Al-Baqarah to drown her out. Anything that leaves her mouth sounds like sex. Our mo...
Read more

Judas and the Sanhedrin by Rethabile Masilo | Poems Rethabile Likes

-
Image
Judas and the Sanhedrin by Rethabile Masilo | Poems Rethabile Likes Judas and the Sanhedrin by Rethabile Masilo Did Judas kiss Jesus as they say just to betray him? The Pharisees and Romans knew not who Jesus was, so when evening approached and they were sick and tired of that bloke who drew multitudes to himself, and unto whom the people of Galilee were attracted, they sent a message to Judas and promised him cash if he could point out the son of man to them. Thirty gleaming shekels; and they asked their messenger to be sure to dangle the bag and jangle the coins before his eyes. Judas was fucked, for he liked money, and although when alone away from the troupe he would sometimes visit the local amusement scene, he had a good heart. The guy found him drinking at a bar, ...
Read more