some guy named Larry ([info]lnhammer) wrote in [info]wordsofonebeat,
@ 2005-12-29 08:02:00
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Entry tags:william butler yeats

When You Are Old
When You Are Old
by Will B. Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nod off by the fire, take down this book,
And read it slow, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shades wrapped deep;

How all the men loved to watch your glad grace,
And loved your looks with love that's false or true,
But one man loved the Soul that changed in you,
And loved the sad thoughts as they changed your face;

And, bent down next to the flame lit bars,
Speak soft, and a bit sad, of how Love fled
And paced on the high hills past the head
And hid his face in all the crowd of stars.


It seemed the thing, what with the verse of Will Yeats, to post one by him.

---L.


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[info]packbat
2005-12-29 07:50 pm UTC (link)
Oh, it's good!

Link.

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[info]lnhammer
2005-12-30 04:26 am UTC (link)
Thanks!

---L.

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[info]kip_w
2005-12-30 02:52 am UTC (link)
Well heck, it just makes me want to cry.

Um, I went here to see the source. Words I thought might be yours were his. Words I thought were his were yours. Nice job.

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[info]lnhammer
2005-12-30 04:26 am UTC (link)
Now that's high praise. Both parts.

---L.

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[info]pedanther
2005-12-30 03:18 am UTC (link)
Nice.

One note: I'd say you've mixed up the first two lines of the last verse, which are in the same mode as "When you are old" and so on. It should, I think, be more like:

And bend down next to the flame lit bars,
Speak soft, and a bit sad, of how Love fled

(Or, as it may be: "And, bent down by the flame lit bars, / Speak soft"?)

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[info]lnhammer
2005-12-30 04:25 am UTC (link)
Oo -- I like that last one you give. I've swiped it, if I may. I think I used the wrong tense (for I did this a while since, as it turns out) as a way to say it at all, but yours is good path through the thorns.

---L.

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