William Butler Yeats
When you are old, gray-haired and sleepy, sitting by the fire, take this book down and read it slowly, dreaming of your soft eyes and deep shadows. How many people have loved your short-lived figure, your beauty, hypocrisy or truth, but only one person has loved your pilgrim's heart and the traces of your sad face on the years. Bend over the stove cover with a low eyebrow, brooding and muttering, how love passed away, how to set foot on a mountain, and how to hide your face among the stars.
When You Are Old is a poem written by William Butler Yeats in 1893. This is a passionate and sincere love poem dedicated by Ye Zhi to his girlfriend Maud Gunny. The language of poetry is concise, but the emotion is rich and true. The poet used a variety of artistic expressions.
Through in-depth analysis of the artistic expression techniques used by the poet in his poems, such as imaginary imagination, comparison and contrast, image emphasis and symbolic sublimation, the poet's faithful love for his girlfriend is reproduced. It reveals the insurmountable distance between real love and ideal love.