Journal+5+poetry

**WHEN YOU ARE OLD**
BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

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.

In this poem I feel an old gentlemen is talking to the youth. I think this poem is influenced my the year the poem was written because in 1893 when this poem was written there was a lot tragedies happening. The old man speaking in the story seems to be trying to tell the youth how they should act when they are adults, unlike how their parents were acting at that time. I think the tone that the author is trying to convey to the readers' is that appearance shouldn't change the way people think about each other. The poem states that "one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face." I think this line means that people that are close to you won't care what you look like, and that they look past the physical appearance and see the personality of a person. The mood of this poem is calming and comforting. The poem seems to be giving relief to the people in the world who are scared of becoming old because they lose their "beauty". The author seems to be saying that real friends will stick by you no matter what your appearance is and no matter what you have been through. My favorite part is the vary last sentence because it sums up the main points of what point the author is trying to make in an abstracted way. I can connect to the message of the story because my grandma used to tell me to always keep your morals and values at the top of your head and never forget them. I think the authors purpose was to tell the youth to look deeper into a person than just their appearance. I think the author is writing to the youth. I liked this poem because I feel it has a great message and it is hard to understand so it makes people think more about what the message of the poem is. I think this poem represents people that judge others on just their looks and don't get to know them. That is what I think about this poem.