And dozing by the fire, take down this poem,
And read it slowly, recalling the softness of thy old eyes,
Recalling the heavy shadows of their yesterdays;
How many loved thy youthful and merry hour,
Adored thy beauty, false or true,
Only One loved thy pilgrim's soul,
Loved the painful wrinkles of thy aged face;
Drooped down, by the red glowing hearth,
And mournfully softly told of that love's fading,
Upon the hill overhead it slowly paced,
And hid its face among the group of stars.
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) Irish poet and playwright. Born in Dublin to a family of painters, Yeats loved the art of poetry and painting since childhood, and was interested in the secret magic of the countryside. 1884, he attended the Dublin School of Art, and soon went against his father's wishes, abandoning the canvas and oils, and concentrating on poetry. 1888, he became acquainted with George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and others, and 1889, Yeats, together with the actresses Mouchelle de Moulin and Gonneau, was the backbone of the Irish National Self-Government Movement, which had a great influence on his life's thoughts and creations. In 1896, Yeats met Mrs. Gregory, a playwright of aristocratic origin, and Yeats owed his life's work to her support. Her Cole Manor was regarded by Yeats as a sublime artistic paradise. His creations in this period were not free from the influence of Romanticism and aestheticism in the late 19th century, but they were simple and full of vitality, with famous poems such as "The Island of Inisfree" (1892) and "When You Are Old" (1896), etc. In 1899, Yeats, together with Mrs. Gregory and John Synge, began to found the National Theatre of Ireland, and formally set up the Abbey Theatre in 1904. During this period, he wrote a number of plays reflecting the history of Ireland and the life of the peasants, the main poems and dramas include Catherine of Hurley Trace (1902), Dairyland (1907), etc. He also had other collections of poems, such as The Wind in the Reeds (1899), In the Seven Forests (1903), Green Helmets (1910), and Responsibility (1914), etc., and published a multi-volume collection of poems and essays. The complete works of Yeats and his friends The creative activities of Yeats and his friends are known as the "Irish Renaissance".
In 1917, Yeats married and settled in the village of Ballylee, near Gregory Manor. Since then, due to the situation of turbulence, accident after accident, Yeats in the trauma of the extremely rich in vitality, his poems have been from the early illusory obscurity into a solid, clear. Important collections of poems include The Wild Swans of Cole Hall (1919), Marco Burroughs and the Dancers (1920), containing the famous poems The Second Coming of Christ, A Prayer for My Daughter, and Easter 1916.
In 1921, when Ireland became independent, Yeats became a senator, and in 1923, Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his always inspired poems, which, through their high art form, have raised the spirit of a whole nation".
In 1928, he published a collection of poems, The Old Castle, which was the culmination of his creative maturity, and contained the famous poems Sailing to Byzantium, Leda and the Swan, Between the Schoolchildren, and The Old Castle, etc. In his later years, Yeats suffered from a number of illnesses. In his later years, Yeats suffered from many illnesses, but he was still enthusiastic and active in his creative endeavors. The important collections of poems include Back to the Ladder (1929) and New Poems (1938), as well as the prose drama The World on the Windowpane (1934) and the verse drama Purgatory (1938), etc. On January 28, 1939, Yeats died in Rougeblonde, France, after a long illness.
When You Are Old
When you are old and gray 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
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrimsoul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down
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. Of stars.