When You Are Old

This is one of three poems that was read at my wedding, so I am especially fond of it. My friend (and a talented writer I might add) Dan McNamara read it, as he and Yeats are fellow Irishman. I tried to find a picture of my husband and I at our wedding to post, but apparently that does not exist digitally, so you will get this lovely picture of the fiercely talented and classic poet, William Butler Yeats. (Picture and poem can be found at poets.org)

When You are Old
by W. B. Yeats

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.