‘When You are Old’ is a love poem in which the poet addresses his lady love in the present, takes her to an unreal condition in the future and asks her to recall her past memories. He does so, in order to persuade her or warn her not to ignore him and make a wrong decision. This time frame is the most compelling point of the poem because he wants her to remember him for his unique and unconditional love for her.
The poet compares himself as a suitor with other suitors. He says, ‘but one man loved the pilgrim soul in you’. He tries to distinguish himself from all the other suitors who tried to woo her. He argues that all the other suitors were only attracted by her physical and external beauty and naturally they would be put off by her looks of old age and might stop showing any interest in her. On the other hand, unlike other suitors, he loved her not for her physical beauty but for her ‘pilgrim soul’.
The word ‘pilgrim soul’ has a reference to the biblical belief that every soul is a pilgrim on the way to salvation and redemption. The speaker, by referring to this aspect of the beloved rather than to her beauty and fame, seeks oneness with the inner spiritual self and not the external self.
