Reflections

When You Are Old

by William Butler Yeats

 When you are old and gray 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 among a crowd of stars. 

"Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it."

Photo creds: Tom Hussey