Elyse Popplewell

WHEN YOU ARE OLD

Context:

 First of many rejections from Maud

 Romantic Era
Purpose:

 Reify his experiences/turmoil into poetry.

 Use this poem as a way of manipulating Maud’s opinion on the situation he yearns
for.
 Expression of his yearn for companionship.
 To scare Gonne into thinking saying no was the wrong decision.
Structure:
The tight form of the douzain, the constant rhythm of iambic pentameter and the consistent
ABBA rhyming scheme suggests the unfailing and certain nature of Yeats’ admiration and
yearning for Gonne. This also complies with the predictable conventions of the romantic era.
First Stanza:

Quote Technique Effect/Explanation

“You” Second person pronoun. Directly addresses the loved
one.
“Grey” Contrasts With the known, colourful,
vivid personality of Maud.
“Sleep” Connotation Of death.

Second Stanza:

Quote Technique Effect/Explanation

“Loved” x4 Repetition Accentuated the deepness
of the emotion.
“loved your beauty” Juxtaposition Highlighting his own
“one man loved the pilgrim soul in you. trueness of emotion against
the false lovers.

Third Stanza:

Quote Technique Effect/Explanation

“little sadly” Diminisher Contrasts with the sorrows
of the stanza.
“Love fled” Personification Love is personified to be
Eros, the God of love. Yeats
is aligning himself with such
a divine power.
From the first assignment on Intense Human Emotions:
 Elyse Popplewell
WHEN YOU ARE OLD

From my first assignment on Intense Human Emotions.

‘When You Are Old’ presents Yeats’ most captivating poetic tool, his representation
of intense human emotion, in a unique manner. The poem is generated as a result of the
melancholic yearning Yeats experienced after the first of several rejections of marriage from
his desired spouse, Maud Gonne. Yeats wrote with the intention of expressing his personal
romantic experiences and speculations into captivating poetry, which would perhaps work as
an instrument of warning to Gonne about the regretful life she would live if she were to never
accept his proposals. Yeats directly silences his muse, using the second person pronoun,
“you,” and consequently privileging his own persona. The privileged persona allows Yeats to
fulfil his yearn to manipulate Gonne’s stance without her rejection. The first line immediately
establishes the tension caused by Yeats’ prolific yearning, thus captivating readers.
The conventions of the romantic poetic era are artistically adhered to in ‘When You
Are Old,’ but these formalities simply add to the emotion explored. Romanticism is a
subjective poetic era that sees oeuvres stimulated by emotions and results in rich and emotive
imagery. Yeats’ ‘When You Are Old’ employs imagery of feeble old age in a way that
starkly contrasts with the ardent Maud Gonne. The poem is projected into the future,
predicting the muse will be “grey,” which is a sharp contrast to the passionate and
enthusiastic Gonne that he is addressing. Yeats intended on instigating a fear in Gonne,
encouraging her to accept the companionship he yearns for. The second stanza accentuates
the adoration that caused his deep yearning through the repetition of “loved” in every line of
the douzain. Further intensifying the depth of his emotion, the men who “loved your beauty”
and the “one man loved the pilgrim soul in you” are juxtaposed to highlight his truthfulness.
Heightening his emotions through the second stanza has allowed Yeats to both successfully
engender a deep warning message to Gonne and to express his desire for companionship,
prompting past and modern readers of the poem to empathise with the intense yearning
represented. Epitomising the yearning that permeates the poem, Yeats personifies the
emotion “Love” in the last stanza to transcend the notion from human control into the Greek
deity Eros. By doing such, Yeats fulfils his intention of gaining some power to satisfy his
yearn by aligning himself with a divine power, whilst simultaneously presenting a warning to
Gonne. This forcefully provokes her to understand that she has the option to control love at
the present time, but she will not forever, thus compelling her to succumb to what Yeats
yearns for. The representation of emotion as Eros reveals another dimension of sentiment,
forcing readers to appreciate the intensity of emotion.
Yeats’ works have been appreciated through various contextual paradigms and
inspected with several subjective lenses. One of the most idiosyncratic readings of the poem
‘When You Are Old’ is illustrated in the feminist understanding presented by John Turner.
Espousing a gender based interpretation of the poem allows one to understand the way the
intensity of yearning can be viewed as oppressive towards women. He argues “the addressee
of this poem is objectified, becoming both subject and muse.” The privileged persona of
Yeats is perceived to be “dominating” in a misogynistic way. Turner insists that the ABBA
rhyming scheme mimics the “control and constraint over women,” as it imitates the arms of a
man enfolding the inferior woman. However, Scholars aligned with the dominant reading of
the poem would argue that the tight form of the douzain, the constant rhythm of iambic
pentameter and the consistent ABBA rhyming scheme suggests the unfailing and certain
nature of Yeats’ admiration and yearning for Gonne. Although the feminist reading has merit,
the dominant reading highlights that overwhelmingly, emotion is the most notable tool for
capturing audiences.