When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats: A Poem of Love and Aging

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.

• William Butler Yeats