I-poetry

1. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
(METAPHOR) AND
IMAGERY ANALYSIS IN
"WHEN YOU ARE OLD" BY
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
By Rizma Agustin

2. Abstract
In this paper the writer tries to analyze " When You
Are Old" by William Butler Yeats". The purpose of this
writing is to understand the intrinsic elements of
poem which are metaphor and imagery. The writer
uses close reading method for this writing. From
analyzing the poem, the writer wants to share the
expression that is contained in the poem. In
conclusion, the poem is easier to understand by
knowing the metaphor and the imagery inside the
poem.
keywords: metaphor, imagery, the expression

3. Introduction
Poetry is one of genres in literature. William
wordsworth in “A Handbook To Literature”
(1960:341) define poetry is the imaginative
expression of strong feeling, usually rhythmical .
. . The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
recollected in tranquillity.

4. Theory
2.1 metaphor
According to “The Bedford Introduction to Literature Second Edition” a
metaphor, like a simile, makes a comparison between two unlike things, but it does
so implicitly without words such as like or as'. (Michael Meyer, 1990:563)
2.2 Imagery
Kennedy states (1978: 464): though the term image suggests a thing seen,
when speaking of images in poetry we generally mean "a word or sequence of words
that refers to any sensory experience". There are seven kinds of imagery:
1. Movement (kinesthetic imagery)
2. Smell ( olfactory imagery)
3. Sight (visual imaery)
4. taste ( gustatory imagery)
5. Feeling inside ( organicimagery)
6. Touch ( tactile imagery)
7. Sound ( auditory imagery)

5. William Butler Yeats
Born in Dublin, Ireland, on June 13, 1865,
William Butler Yeats was the son of a well-
known Irish painter, John Butler Yeats. He spent
his childhood in County Sligo, where his parents
were raised, and in London. Appointed a senator
of the Irish Free State in 1922, he is
remembered as an important cultural leader, as
a major playwright (he was one of the founders
of the famous Abbey Theatre in Dublin), and as
one of the very greatest poets—in any
language—of the century. W. B. Yeats was
awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923 and died in
1939 at the age of seventy-three.

6. Discussion ( Metaphor)
1. Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep (stanza1, line4)
Since in many aging faces there is a loss of flesh so that becoming shadowed
and difficult to "read" any meaning or emotion into..
2. But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you (stanza2,line3)
Yeats uses a metaphor ‘pilgrim soul’ to explain that his beloved and he
are kindred spirit. They are soulmate.
3. And bending down beside the glowing bars (stanza3, line1)
In that poem, ‘glowing bars’ is to most likely to some type of fire grating
that is so close to the fire that perhaps it glows a bit red.
4. And hid his face amid a crowd of stars (stanza3, line4)
Meaning hid his very human love and loved with a purer love. Either he
made a concious choise to love her in this way because the other type of love
wasn't resolved or his love gradually matured and envolved that way and
remained an eternal love.

7. Discussion ( Imagery)
1. When you are old and grey and full of sleep (stanza1, line1)
The phrase full of sleep has the connotation of internal sensation
(organic imagery) that we can feel and image her tiredness in
that time and she is going to die in a soon future.
2. and nodding by the fire, take down this book (stanza1, line2)
He uses phrase nodding by the fire that has connotation of
movement (kinaesthethic imagery) for imagining an old woman
take an action half asleep beside the fire place.
3. and loved the sorrow of your changing face (stanza2, line4)
It has connotation of sight (visual imagery) we can image when
she gets old and her face get shrink, so her face look different, he
will just love her with the same strong love he always did.

8. Conclusion
This poem is telling his beloved (Maude
Gonne) that she needs to get her act
together and open her heart to Yeats,
because if she doesn’t she’ll grow shallow and
crass and that love will grow inaccessible to
her. That is, now while Gonne is in her
youth, her heart is still open to the beauty of
Yeats’ love and the potential it holds for
both of them. Yeats will still love her, but
she will no longer be able to reach for that
love. It’ll only be like a fading memory in a
book of old