101 Poems, Number 22

Favorite Poems Throughout My Life

22: “When You Are Old,” 1892, by William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

A poem that explores regret—

And loss—and, yes, what might have been.

The anguish that we can’t forget—

So strong it will not stay within.

A love that could have been won’t be—

A lover lost who looks ahead

And summons distant memory—

And thinks of how a heart has bled.

Link to poem.