English Literature - Poetry and Poetic Devices

English Literature
English Literature - Poetry and Poetic Devices

Who is unrequited in love according to the poem ?


Read the following poem and answer the question:

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.

Options:

  1. The old lady who is addressed in the poem.
  2. The men who loved her glad grace.
  3. The poet himself.
  4. The man whom the lady loved in her youth.

Right Answer: The poet himself.

The ‘one man’ who loved the pilgrim soul in the woman and even the sorrows of her changing face is the speaker himself. He asks her to recognise, in old age, the depth of a love she did not return, and the closing image of Love fleeing and hiding his face amid a crowd of stars records that loss. The poem is addressed to Maud Gonne, the Irish revolutionary whom Yeats loved and who repeatedly refused his proposals of marriage. It is therefore the poet whose love remains unrequited, not the woman or her other admirers.

This question is part of English Literature - Poetry and Poetic Devices, which has 17 practice questions with answers.

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