when you are old

When you are old

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 litter sadly,how loved fled

and paces upon the mountains overhead

and hid his face amid a crowd of start