Poem: "When You Are Old" by William Butler Yeats

Portrait of an Old Woman (Rembrandt, 1654) (Wikimedia)

This 1891 poem was written when the Irish poet Yeats was still in his mid-twenties. The speaker seems to look ahead to a time when he and the lover addressed in the poem are separated--perhaps because she rejected him--and reminds her that only one man looked past her beauty (which changes) and saw her for what she truly was: my favorite words, "the pilgrim soul in you"!

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.

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SOME WORDS:

• grace: elegance in looks or actions; a pleasing or attractive quality
• nodding: falling asleep
• glowing bars: the grate in the fireplace (that holds the wood)
• murmur: speak quietly
• pilgrim: usually a person who travels for religious purposes; here used as an adjective to describe the lover's soul

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QUESTION

What (if anything) does the speaker seem to want from the lover he addresses in the poem?