Hi,

Question

I have a question that I'm stuck on. Do you know what kind of poem William Butler Yeats's poem "When You Are Old" is? That is, is it a sonnet or an epic or something else altogether? Please help! Here is the poem:

<strong>When You Are Old</strong>

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.

I appreciate it and thank you.

Sincerely,

Kate

Answer 1

It's definitely not an epic!! Iliad and Odyssey and Beowulf are epics!!

Sonnets have 14 lines and are written in iambic pentameter (which means there are 10 syllables per line, with the emphasis on the even syllables.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet

http://www.poeticterminology.net/

http://www.gradesaver.com/poems-of-wb-yeats-the-rose/study-guide/section12/

Let us know what you decide.

Answer 2

Well, it's not a sonnet because it has 12 lines. So, I'm not sure but I think it's blank verse? Maybe. But, it might also be couplets.

By the way, thanks for getting back to me.

Kate

Answer 3

http://www.uni.edu/~gotera/CraftOfPoetry/blankverse.html
Notice the word "unrhymed" in this definition.

The poem has three stanzas of 4 lines each. Couplets are 2 lines in each stanza. What is the 4-line stanza called?