Poems of W.B. Yeats: The Rose

are the qualities in the poem that you noticed while re-reading the poem?

When You are Old

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, 5

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 10

And paced upon the mountains overhead,

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

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I think the tenderness of the poem comes out in the tone and texture of the poem. THe sense of the life giving enormity of love long after it has past in the physical sense. The qualities of real love that knows not age or conditions is special to me. This type of love endures. I love this quality.