My favourite poems - W. B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats by John Singer Sargent, 1908
W. B. Yeats(1865-1939)
I've loved this poem by Irish poet W. B. Yeats from the minute I heard it at school.  
When You Are Old has a hypnotic quality and traces the journey from youth to old age in a few wonderfully emotive sentences. It speaks of a love willing to journey into old age, yet implies sadness at a missed opportunity.  I find it sad