Young Man's Song
About the text
Yeats first published this poem in 1932. It is out of copyright in Ireland and the EU, but in the United States it stays in copyright until the start of 2028, and this site is served partly from American servers. So for now we give the notes without the full text; it will appear here in 2028.
It begins: 'She will change,' I cried
In brief
SummaryA young man's heart rebukes him for imagining his love grown old.
A young man cries out that the woman he loves will one day turn into a withered crone. His heart, quiet until then, answers in noble anger. It tells him to lift his eyes and look without fear: she would stay just as brave if the whole fabric of the world faded, and no withered crone existed before the world was made. Shamed, and knowing the heart cannot lie, he kneels in the dirt, and says everyone must kneel to his offended heart until it forgives him.
Lines to remember
Before the world was made.
Line by line
Lines 1 to 6The withered crone
The young man cries that his love will change into a withered old woman. His heart, lying still in his side, is roused to noble rage and beats against the bone of his ribs, as if angry at the insult.
Lines 7 to 12The heart's reply
The heart tells him to raise his eyes and look boldly. She would show as bravely if all the fabric of the world should fade. It saw no withered crone before the creation: her true self is her eternal, unchanging form, not the body time will age.
Lines 13 to 18Kneeling in the dirt
Abashed, because the heart cannot lie, he kneels in the dirt. Then he turns the humbling into a grand demand: all must bend the knee to his offended heart until it pardons him. The comedy of youthful excess colours the reverence.
Themes
Beauty and time
The young man's fear is the fear of ageing, that beauty is only surface and will wither. The heart replies with a Platonic idea: the beloved's true form existed before creation and cannot fade. Beauty belongs to eternity, not to the passing body.
Heart and head
The poem stages an argument between the young man's reasoning and his heart. Reason sees decay; the heart sees the soul and is outraged. The heart wins, since it "cannot lie", and the young man ends on his knees. Feeling here is wiser than calculation.
Context
Part of the sequence "Words for Music Perhaps", first gathered in Words for Music Perhaps and Other Poems (Cuala Press, 1932) and collected in The Winding Stair and Other Poems (Macmillan, 1933). It is paired with "Girl's Song" and followed by further poems in the voices of young lovers. The idea of a beloved's face before the world was made returns in the poem "Before the World Was Made".
Form
Three six-line stanzas of short three-beat lines rhyming ABABAB, often with half rhymes, as in the last stanza. The small, tight stanzas move like a song, and the second stanza, entirely in the heart's voice, forms the centre of the poem.