Not that WBY needs Johnny Cochran, or any other defenders, but some of the difficulties you mention, though they may date the poem, do not lessen my opinion of it.
He had already published one book, “Crossways,” when “When You Are Old” was written. As publishers were much less fickle then than now (I don’t believe there were any second book contests at the time), it doesn’t seem too presumptuous of him to expect that the poem he was writing would also be published in a subsequent collection. And it is important, to both Yeat's poem and Ronsard's, that the author be a writer of considerable talent.
He was following the model of a poem by Ronsard. Judging by the translation supplied, I hope most will agree that WBY’s poem was not only a bit more concise, but also a tremendous improvement over the original model. Certainly WBY's version is less egotistical, and prone to the projection of emotions than Ronsard's ("Mourning my love, and all your proud disdain"). From the little I know of Yeats' life, it seems likely that Maude Gonne may have had at least as much to do with this poem as Ronsard.
“Soft look” can plausibly be read as “soft appearance.” I trust I am not the only 40+ person who ever looked in a mirror and lamented the crow’s feet, large dark bags, and bloodshot whites that have come to adorn their eyes. And as the future subject of the poem seems to be at least in her sixties, it is not too much of a stretch to imagine her thinking back on the soft/youthful appearance her eyes had long ago. Though I don’t have much trouble reading the “soft look” as “soft gaze”, as a striking, young woman such as the one in the poem, can easily gauge the how fetching her gaze might be, by its effects on her numerous suitors. May we be allowed to enjoy both interpretations?
The last stanza is the most astonishing part of the poem. I believe the speaker is not so much projecting his feelings on the beloved, as he is describing how he might like to be remembered, something one might have the right to ask, if one hasn’t been too much of a jerk. And, to risk treating the poem as autobiography rather than a fiction, the last three lines can be read as a metaphoric prophecy (perhaps a self-fulfilling prophecy) of the impact that Yeats’ relationship with Maude Gonne would have on his path as a poet. And the imagery and the music!
[This message has been edited by C.G. Macdonald (edited December 30, 2000).]
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