When You Are Old

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1893

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Cultural Context

In many ways, Yeats embodied the complexity of Ireland at the turn of the century, and his writings tapped into that intersection between English and Irish traditions. He was born into a protestant, Anglo-Irish family, then a minority in Ireland, but did not share the idea that he was essentially an Englishman in Ireland. Instead, he embraced his Irish nationality, often drawing on Irish legends, heroes, and Celtic myth in his poetry and plays, even when writing in London in his early years. His poetry was similarly influenced by English poets, such as John Donne, Edmund Spencer, John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. However, his many friendships and associations with other authors and Irish nationalists in the 1890s solidified his enduring project to create identifiably Irish content. At the time that he published The Rose (1893), he developed a deep interest in the occult and joined a secret society that performed magic rituals. Yet, these beliefs did not heavily penetrate his poetry; on the contrary, Yeats often relied on familiar traditions and everyday images, focusing on craftsmanship, structure and the aesthetic of the work. “When You Are Old” reflects many of these intersecting influences in his life, from the neatly metered structure of the poem and its sonnet-like form, to the mystical temporal shifts between past, present, and future that conclude with a classical personification of Love.

Personal Context

Maud Gonne was an Irish republican revolutionary of Anglo-Irish descent, who was also an actress and suffragette. For Yeats, she was his longtime love interest and his muse, a frequent subject of his poems and plays such as The Countess Cathleen (1892) and Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902). Yeats met Gonne in London in 1889 and fell in love with her, though his love remained unrequited. They shared an interest in the occult, and she encouraged his dedication to Irish nationalism, but his passion for the movement was not passionate enough, and she later rejected at least five marriage proposals from him between 1891 and 1916. “When You Are Old” was published not long after the first rejection, and many scholars interpret it to be written about Gonne, along with many other poems of that time. Gonne would go on to marry another man in 1903, to his distress. However, her marriage was a failure, and in Paris in 1908, the two briefly reunited to consummate their relationship. While this did not rekindle their relationship, he proposed once more in 1916 after Gonne’s husband had been executed for his participation in the 1916 Easter Rising. When Yeats was again rejected, he proposed to her 22-year-old daughter Iseult, who considered it but also rejected him. Three weeks later, at 51 years old, Yeats married Georgie Hyde-Lees, who was 25 years old. They had a successful marriage and produced two children together.