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

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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.

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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

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Comments

cloudhand said…
Love the Hardy quote at the end. Yeats is among those early turn of the century wonders.
19 July 2026 at 08:26
Rethabile said…
One of *the* Masters
19 July 2026 at 13:37
Anonymous said…
One of my all-time favourites!
20 July 2026 at 22:13
Rethabile said…
One of mine, too. A poem that sings a meaning we can all relate to.
21 July 2026 at 06:58
Abigail George said…
When I am older than I am now, and the spring and summertime of my youth and my years have passed me by, I will still write poetry. I will still have a generous love for avocados, I will still drink green tea in a hot garden, I will still meditate on wildflowers in the rain. Yes, when I am older I will still do all of these things, I will still write poetry. As I boil manifestos in a kettle, as I butter warm toast, as I boil brown eggs for my father's breakfast, I will still write poems in the marrow of my bones, of smoke, bone and flesh, whether I am singing the blues or suffering, whether I am sad or experiencing a major depressive episode, I will still write poetry, in the spring and the summertime of the autumn of my years. Listen, can you hear Chopin? I always hear Chopin when I read poetry by bold and brilliant poems.

You have the soul of a poet, Rethabile. So do all these poets whose poems you have posted. What is it to have a soul of a poet? Well, another poet might just hear Chopin after they read a poem. That's how you know. You hear music. Otherworldly and introspective.
21 July 2026 at 08:29
Rethabile said…
Afterwards, following the reading of a good poem, I wear a smile and feel satisfied with the world. Full.
24 July 2026 at 05:41
Rethabile said…
Sated, is the right word.
25 July 2026 at 11:25
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