When you are old

In this poem the poet is whispering to a woman, who is “old and grey and full of sleep” (sleep also being a metaphor for “close to death”), telling her to remember the young days when she was loved by many men. In the first half of the poem one gets a nice warm feeling, which is created by carefully chosen words such as fire, soft, love, beauty, and grace. However the other half starts with a “but” and makes a turn in the theme. The poet exposes that one man (probably him) loved her more than others, not just her beauty but “the pilgrim Soul” in her. And he tells her to “Murmur, a little sadly” because she let that love go by.