When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars

“When You Are Old” is one of the earliest of Yeats’s unequivocally great poems. His timeless evocation of the sentiments contained within these sublime lines could have been written centuries before by an Elizabethan sonneteer were it not for their poignant modernity and the tacit recognition that great art can spring from love’s failure.

Yeats said that “life is a long preparation for something that never happens”, which is surely a true insight into the human condition, but bleak as it sounds may contain some optimism – ultimately the acceptance that we continuously strive and that we will have moments when we succeed and times when we fail. The Pilgrim Soul that searches and toils.

This show has been inspired by the phrase “Moments of Glad Grace” from the second stanza of the poem. We have brought together the work of 7 truly talented artists in early to mid-career stages. Much of the work we are showing is figurative and reflects the sorrows of the changing face; memories, stillness, youth - whilst others resonate with the comfort, elation and privacy of our moments of glad grace.

The Violet Hour, March 2024