Textbook Comprehension I (with answers)
1. The speaker is addressing: a. a young woman he has loved. b. an old woman that he has met now. c. the woman that he has admired in his life. Answer: a. He speaks to her while she is young, asking her to imagine her old age.
2. In line two, the word 'book' refers to: a. memories b. book of poems c. an album d. diary Answer: b. book of poems - the speaker's own poems about her.
3. The phrase 'glad grace' suggests: a. her physical beauty. b. her inner beauty. c. her goodness. Answer: a. It is the outward charm that the many admirers loved - in contrast with the "pilgrim soul" that only one man loved.
4. 'Pilgrim soul' means the soul: a. which is immortal. b. that has gone on a pilgrimage. c. which is in quest of true love. Answer: c. A pilgrim soul is a questing soul, always searching.
5. What does the phrase 'your changing face' suggest? It suggests the changes that age and sorrow bring to her face. Her youthful beauty will fade, but the speaker loves her face even in its sorrows and changes.
6. 'Love fled' connotes: a. the death of the man who loved her. b. the fleeing of her lover to the mountains. c. the loss endured by her. Answer: c. She lost true love, and in old age she will feel that loss.
Textbook Comprehension II and III (model answers)
Q. How is the 'one man' different from the many others who loved the lady? (II-1) The many others loved her "moments of glad grace" and her beauty - some sincerely, some falsely. Their love was for her outward charm. The one man - the speaker - loved her pilgrim soul, her searching inner self, and even the sorrows of her changing face. His love would remain when her beauty faded.
Q. Does the poem bring out the transient nature of beauty as against the permanence of love? (II-2) Yes. The woman will grow old, grey and sleepy; her soft look and deep eyes will be only a memory. Her beauty passes. But the one man's love, which was for her soul, does not depend on beauty; it survives in his poems ("this book") and in her memory. Beauty is transient; true love lasts.
Q. Comment on the usage of time frame by the poet. (III-1) The poet moves across three times. He speaks in the present, while she is young. He asks her to picture the future, when she is old by the fire. From that future she will look back to the past - her youth, her admirers and his love. This movement shows how time destroys beauty but not true love, and makes the poem a warning: the love she ignores now she will value and miss later.
Q. 'When You Are Old' is a poem of contrasts. What purpose do they serve? (III-2) The poem contrasts youth and old age, many lovers and one man, love false and true, beauty and the soul, the warm fire and the distant stars, and present, future and past. These contrasts highlight the difference between shallow love for beauty and deep love for the soul, and between what she has now and what she will lose. They give the poem its gentle sadness and its message.
Exam-Pattern Questions and Answers
Two-mark questions
Q1. Mention the two reasons for which the poet loved his beloved in the poem 'When You Are Old'. (asked in the 2025 board paper) The poet loved the pilgrim soul in her. He also loved the sorrows of her changing face.
Q2. What does the speaker want his beloved to do, sitting by the fire? He wants her to take down his book of poems and read it slowly. He wants her to dream of the soft look her eyes once had.
Q3. Where did Love hide his face? Love paced upon the mountains overhead and hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
Three-mark question (about 60 words)
Q4. How does the speaker describe his beloved's old age? She will be old, grey and full of sleep, nodding by the fire. She will take down his book of poems, read slowly and dream of the soft look and deep shadows of her young eyes. Bending beside the glowing bars of the fireplace, she will murmur sadly how Love fled and hid among the stars.
Four-mark question (about 100 words)
Q5. How does the poem 'When You Are Old' contrast shallow love with true love? The speaker asks his beloved to imagine her old age, when she reads his poems by the fire. She will remember how many people loved her moments of glad grace and her beauty, some with false love and some with true. But only one man loved her pilgrim soul, her restless, searching spirit, and loved even the sorrows of her changing face. The others' love was for beauty, which fades with age; his love was for her soul, which lasts. The poem ends sadly, as she murmurs how Love fled and hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
[Exam Tip] — For "two reasons", write two separate points - the pilgrim soul, and the sorrows of the changing face - not one long sentence.