"When you are old” by William Butler Yeats

‘When you are old’

By Mario, Jesús and Xiao

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Table of contents: 1.

Introduction……………………………………...……...3

2.

Individual poems…………………….………...………..4

3.

2.1.

Mario’s…………………………………….……....4

2.2.

Jesús’……………………………………...……...10

2.3.

Xiao’s.…………………………………...……….16

Common poem: “When you are old ”............................22 3.1.

Why we chose this poem…………………………24

3.2.

Author’s information……………………………..24

3.3.

Poem analysis…………………………………….24

3.4.

Opinion…………………………………………...25

4.

Conclusion……………………………………………..26

5.

Bibliography…………………………………………...27

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1.Introduction In this project we are going to analyse different poems. During the time before starting the project itself we wrote different types of poems (dadaist, acrostics, haikus and calligrams). We didn’t write these poems as a group but individually. So each one of us will analyse the poems he wrote by himself.

Besides that, we will analyse, as a group, a poem, chosen by us, which is ‘When you are old’ by William Butler Yeats.

The objective of this project is about learning the different types of poems, its structure, as well as understanding the hidden meaning in them.

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2. Poems

Mario’s poems:

Dadaist​: include relationships relationship discuss mother-daughter topics age a experiences Some sharing some have generation, above, the looks married like, attitudes how towards touched revealing perfect generation and video may get ideal variety In the duos of attitudes What marriage, the shifted the their to from to and by on of their and a pairs of

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Acrostic: Memes: M​ade for fun E​asy to understand M​aybe you’ll find some of them offensive E​ventually you won’t care about it S​o go ahead and learn from this internet culture

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Haiku(s): Blind to see light: Lonely in this world I come from the deep darkness Will I see some light?

Having no one but Myself in this crude gray world Someone else outside?

Wonder what’s outside All I see is darkness Somebody has light?

I’m going to find you Where the hell are you, my love?

Why can’t I see you?

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Calligram:

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Poem to deliver:

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Jesús’ poems

Dadaist (Jesús and Xiao) Apparent Perfection Emma, “the perfect woman”.

Went part of herself Johnson, medical student, When up Oxford She challenge.

Found appearance sensation Had idea BBC internet Would labelled yet University University’s show Corpus as onto Christi as she Her end She quiz after the team An no on.

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Acrostic: Life: L​ive and let live I​f you want to F​eel good and E​njoy life.

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Haiku: The Wolf: The Amazing Wolf It can be white, black or grey, It´s always faithful.

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Calligram:

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Poem to deliver:

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Xiao’s poems

Acrostic(s) Trust: T​he truth is R​elative U​sually, people will talk, S​adly, they will lie.

T​he decision to believe in them is only yours

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Exam: E​nglish test, X​iao is nervous.

A​i forguet jou tu raigt M​y god, help.

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Haiku (s): We are...: We will have no time To... To become aware of Everything we are.

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Eng. Exam I don’t know how to pass this exam. Loly, please, forgive my mistakes.

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Calligram:

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Poem to deliver

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3. The poem: “When you are old” When you are old​ by William Butler 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.

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-​Why we chose this poem

We didn’t care about the poem we would have to analyse, so it was Jesús who chose this poem because of the title (‘When you are old’). It got his attention and he liked the poem and showed it to us. Whilst Mario liked it, Xiao didn’t, but that didn’t affect the project as his opinion helped the team to contrast opinions.

-Author’s information: William Butler Yeats was born in Ireland in 1865 and he died in London in 1939. His poetry was at first based on the Irish myths and the folklore. From 1900 his poetry evolved into a more realistic and physical one leaving behind the transcendental themes he used to treat. As we can see, he didn’t turn to his precursor themes, so we can deduce that this poem belongs to his evolved poesy.

-Poem analysis: The main theme of the poem is the age. The author wrote about how the girl will see the present she’s living at the moment when she is old. ​In the first four verses, the author tells us about one moment in the future when the girl (we suppose this poem is for his girlfriend/boyfriend as it would be normal, but it is quite possible that this poem is written directed to the reader) is ​an old woman and she picks up a book and starts to ​remember the things she once had (the soft look her eyes once had the poem mentions). After that, the next two verses continue to tell about the nostalgia the girl will feel of the things she once had.

Then, the author writes about how many people loved the girl’s grace but it was one single man who loved her truly even though the pass of years.

We think that the final verses want to express how the love the author felt towards her would slowly disappear when she is old but it’d remain in the stars, a symbol referring to her memories.

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We think that the author wrote this poem being inspired by his own life since perhaps he lived the sensation he writes about here and he decided to transmit that feeling through poetry and ending writing this poem.

-Opinion Mario: I think this poem was very interesting because of its topic ​and how the author treats it. It really brings us to think about how we see life and how we’ll see it when we are old. It was really nice to read it and think about the messages the poem wants to transmit us so I think it was worth to work with it.

Jesús: I chose this poem because when I first saw it, I liked the title and the idea of the poem.

In my opinion the poem expresses sad feelings and how a man feels when he is old and reminds his old times, when he was young. I think that the author talks about the love for a girlfriend or possibly his wife, because when he says “how love fled…”, I think that this is for her. I also think that with the last verse the author wants to tell us that his wife has died.

In my opinion this is a very good poem, because after reading it, we think about life, the lost time…

Xiao: The first time I read this poem, I didn’t like it. But, as I started to analyze it and read it carefully, I became aware of what this poem is trying to transmit. It's a simple but realistic message: all of us will grow old, and when this moment comes, we will notice of all the things that we left behind, and this will create a melancholic feeling. It’s impossible to beat the time, so we have to assume the crude reality: death always comes. So, I think that the moral lesson that this poem wants to transmit us is simple: “carpe diem”, and, if you do it, you can remember all those memories when you are old.

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4. Conclusion This project helped us to understand better how to analyse poems and interpret them. We discovered a new author whose poem made us think about the age and life while we were working with it. Apart from that, we learned how to write our own poems. The objective of this project was accomplished: to introduce us into the world of poetry and that we are interested​ ​in it.

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Celia M., High Heeled Life, <​http://attitudeivlife.blogspot.com.es/2013/10/week-end-inspiration.html​> [Accessed 04/06/2017] Cold Hard Crash, Roll Safe - You can’t hate Jews when there is no Jews, <​http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1219775-roll-safe​> [Accessed 03/06/2017].

Daisy Phillipson, Meme Master ‘Hide The Pain Harold’ Has Been Found Alive After Rumours Of His Death, <​http://www.sickchirpse.com/hide-pain-harold-found-alive-well/​> [Accessed 03/06/2017]. earthtodenis-blog, Tumblr: “Trth hrtz”, <​https://www.tumblr.com/search/trth%20hrtz​> [Accessed 03/06/2017] Isilmecalien - The Wolf's Night http://isilmecalien.deviantart.com/art/The-Wolf-s-Night-49221651 [Accessed 03/06/2017].

Goyo Armañazas Ros - GO Grupos y Organizaciones <​https://gogruposyorganizaciones.com/terapia-de-grupo/​> [Accessed 03/06/2017].

Greg Capullo, comic “Death of the family”, <​http://bamsmackpow.com/2016/07/12/3-storylines-perfect-batman-solo-film/​> [Accessed 03/06/2017] snajath, Meme Center “After final exam memes”, <​https://www.memecenter.com/tag/After%20Final%20exam​> [Accessed 03/06/2017] Paqui Pedros Espinosa, Feliz día del escritor, <​http://poemasycosasdeluna.blogspot.com.es/2011/11/​> [Accessed 04/06/2017] 27

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