In his work When You Are Old, acclaimed Irish poet W.B. Yeats uses his mastery of the English language to deliver a warning to a lover, letting them know how sorry they are going to be someday that they didn’t return his love. By use of specific connotation, Yeats paints a detailed portrait of an imagined future moment in his lover’s life. When You Are Old is a warning to his lover: you may reject me now, but when you are close to death’s door you will remember and regret losing me. Despite having such a juvenile sentiment it contains evocative imagery in its diction and, combined with its tone and meter, highlights why W.B. Yeats is considered one of poetry’s masters.
The meter is iambic pentameter with a first/fourth line, second/third line
The meter is iambic pentameter with a first/fourth line, second/third line