Question

In the line "how Love fled" from "When You Are Old," Love refers to A. the poem's subject, Maud Gonne. B. the poem's author, Yeats. C. young people who believe they're in love. D. the years gone by.

Answer 1

My answer is D) The years gone by

The following is my reasoning:

This poem has a theme of losing a loved one and the process of aging and in the lines "Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled / And paced upon the mountains overhead / and hid his face amid a crowd of stars." The narrator wrote this poem for his wife to read in her old age, assuming he wrote this for her before his own death (this statement is supported by the first stanza of the poem).