Ms. Guenat
English Comp 2
February 22, 2010
On my first reading of “Sailing to Byzantium”, it didn’t make much sense, but after reading and doing more research I believe that Yeats’s is the older man that is in “Sailing to Byzantium”. In a way he was writing this poem to reflect his own life. He wanted to take the reader on a journey through the process of life and death. Yeats lived from 1865 to 1939 and this poem was written in 1926. Yeats has an obsession with the past both the distant past and that of his personal life and these things are symbolic of his fear of growing old or aging and a persistent fear of death. He uses imagery, symbolism, and figurative language to convey a meaning of life, death, and what comes in his poem “Sailing to Byzantium.
There is a lot of imagery throughout this poem. I believe it has a lot to do with living, dying and being forgotten. Starting with the first and second sentences in stanza one. “There is no country for old men. The young/ In one another’s arms, birds in the trees” (1-2) He himself, Yeats is expressing that he is one of these old men that is in a country that the young have taken over, and full of happiness and love. Then we go into the last two lines in stanza one. “Caught in that sensual music all neglect/ Monuments of unaging intellect”. In an article I have read, says that “The birds in the trees sings “sensual music” praising the natural process of procreation, birth and death. But the old man who narrates the poem prefers “monuments” of unaging intellect”, which the sensual youth “neglects.” “Sensual opposes “intellect” and “begotten, born, and dies” opposes “unaging.”(O’Donnell) I also believe this means the narrator is again displaying the hatred of himself being unnoticed by these young people that are enjoying the lives of happiness. The younger people are ignoring all the knowledge that surrounds them. Yeats modulates from “old men” in the first stanza to a “tattered coat upon a stick” in the second stanza, in which the “aged-man” has become a scarecrow.(Cheuse, Delbanco p.9) “An aged man is but a paltry thing.” Yeats uses the similarity with a scarecrow, to refer to the lifelessness of someone old. It’s like the life has been sucked out of him and nothing is left but a lifeless carcass. Yeats uses the symbol of a scarecrow to represent the weakness of old age. The scarecrow represents a lifeless image symbolizing everything that Yeats wants to discard in his mortal life.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
In the first stanza the sentence, "it's a singular, human thud", this line creates a picture in the mind that there's feel of isolation and lonesomeness, and as it goes on the theme of nature reveals itself even more eg "only the wind through the sparse leaves".…
- 836 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The poem begins by undercutting the beautiful, pleasant imagery promised by the title through the terse bluntness of the “dusk, and cold.” Flowers are indeed present as the title suggests, but only “frail, melancholy” ones, gathered by the subservient act of “kneeling” among “ashes and loam”. There is a definite sense of ending – both of the day, and of something grander. The persona’s attempts at engaging with the natural world are crudely rebuffed – she cannot succeed in her musical engagement, merely “try”, which results only in an “indifferent” blackbird “fret[ting] and strop[ing]” under “Ambiguous light. Ambiguous sky.” This unfriendly environment in which the poem begins foregrounds the sense of loss which characterises so much of Harwood’s poetry, an inevitable, confronting finality emphasised by the bluntness of the language and plethora of full stops. The adult world presented here is one of uncertainty, difficulty and ambiguity.…
- 1334 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
In the poem, the author describes the scene of birds singing early in the morning and how quickly the sereneness ends. The author uses diction and metaphors to describe the birds’ song.…
- 316 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
William Butler Yeats' poem "The Wild Swans at Coole" tells of a man who, in the autumn, would visit this pool of water that was a resting place for a flock of swans. He visits them one autumn but does not return for 19 years, "The nineteenth autumn has come upon me since I first made my count." Yeats uses simple diction so he does not distract from the empasis on the swans themselves. Words like; "Clamorous" (line 12) and "Bell-beat" (line 17) describe the nature of the swan's wings, the sounds they make and the effect the sound has on him. The details that Yeats gives about the swans, help the reader to visualize what the speaker is seeing. "The trees are in their autumn beauty, The woodland paths are dry." tells us the season that the poem is set and gives us a picture of the speakers surroundings. "I have looked upon these creature and now my heart is sore." The speaker is very fond of these swans, that is why he visits them and watches their continuing cycle of coming and going.…
- 1251 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
Yeat’s pursuit to retain permanence for age and love, and the cultural impacts of the Irish revolution around him are the universal tensions and desires reflected in his poetry. “The Wild Swan’s at Coole” and “Easter 1916” unifies the understanding of life complexities and also its contradictions; the “beauty” of life, yet still the cruel existence of suffering. Yeat’s poetry, intends to release emotions beyond earthly bounds and provides insight of relating as a human being, and ultimately leaving behind a legacy, his art, to underpin the importance of desire.…
- 1206 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
As Yeats opens with, "The jester walked into the garden," he immediately establishes the idea of the Garden of Eden as it is the first natural place of affection between a man and a woman. Continuing we read how the jester, "bade his soul rise upward." Here the man is offering his soul to the queen who is above him both physically and in social status. This could perhaps have been triggered by his obsession with the actress Maud Gonne, her being the queen to his jester. It rises in a "straight blue garment," the colours symbolising his hope for his love to be reciprocated, and the sincerity of his confession of love to the queen. The owls, which represent wisdom, 'call' a warning to him but he takes no heed of it. Yeats uses enjambment in this second stanza to give a sense of flow…
- 1805 Words
- 8 Pages
Powerful Essays -
After Yeats’ dreams come the memories of the woman. In three of the five stanzas Yeats repeats the words ‘Vague memories, nothing but memories.’ Yeats’ actual memories of her have faded as he got older, another result of time and ageing. Yeats can only remember a small amount about her, a large amount of that being her looks and beauty, he has been dreaming about that one thing for so long that he has forgotten everything else about her. It is suggested that even the memories that he still has become blurred and they are not as they actually were. In the fourth stanza she enters a lake with one small imperfection that makes her stand out, but if she were to leave the lake it is implied that this imperfection will disappear and she will be utterly perfect. That imperfection is the one of her characteristics that makes her so appealing to Yeats and so even more memorable, if that were to go then perhaps he will forget her altogether.…
- 748 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In the first quatrain, the speaker tells his beloved that his age is like a "time of year," by employing the metaphor of late autumn, which emphasizes the harshness and emptiness of old age. The speaker continues this feeling of old age with the metaphors, "when yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang upon the boughs which shake against the cold" (lines 2-3). Those metaphors clearly indicate that winter, which usually symbolizes loneliness and desolation, is coming. The leaves that are falling off the branches symbolize the old man?s loss of hair, and the boughs shaking against the cold symbolize the frailty of his limbs, both of which are signs of old age and nearing death. The speaker also uses a metaphor in autumn?s "bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang" (4) to convey a feeling of old age. The speaker compares autumn, void of the songs of the birds of spring, to his life, which is now void of life?s sweet songs as well as the same vitality that the birds possess.…
- 1070 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Possibly the most moving stanza, it poignantly captures the pessimism everyone feels at the passing on of a loved one. With the use of exaggerated metaphors, Auden creates a world without sunlight, oceans and wood, a world that would not just be devoid of life but also of purpose. He considers his world to become apocalyptic without his soul-mate, but doesn’t particularly care since he feels he can no longer appreciate anything, be it good or disastrous in the world. He believes it to be rendered meaningless at this very personal loss. The sense of…
- 751 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
William Butler Yeats’ poetry possesses strong imagery and themes of stability and change. Two of the poems, which especially highlight these elements, are The Second Coming and The Wild Swans At Coole. Within both of these poems the recurring imagery conjures creates strong elements of stability and change.…
- 784 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
In line one she starts off by saying “Mother tried to take her life”, in this quote she refers to her mom as Mother which is a very cold and distant way to refer to one’s mom (Honum 1). She also in the first four lines uses very short sentences that give the tone of someone who is acting distant. This cold and distance syntax is what gives this stanza it winter theme. In the next stanza it goes to spring which symbolizes rebirth and moving forward. The diction used in lines 7-8 are the best example of this, because they say “Birds flew from the woods fingertips” here the word choice of woods meaning something dark and scary, as well as the fact that the birds are escaping from the woods represents getting through a horrible set back in life(Honum). The next stanza uses words like fruit, grass, and daisies which are all things associated with summer. She also uses a much longer sentence. Fall comes last and it talks about how quick things come and go like summer. “Unless it doesn’t stop, like moonlight which has no pace to speak of falling through the cedar limbs, falling through the rock”, this means that like moonlight not all things last forever that everything will eventually slip away(Honum…
- 680 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The imagery brought forth by the environment described evokes feelings of loneliness and sorrow, and the use of bright colors in the vanishing sunset and cardinal show the fading away of a source of comfort or happiness. The speaker of the poem is lonely because his father has died, most likely too soon, due to an illness. He misses the time he spent with his father, because he was a source of excitement in a dull world, much like the rice and peas brought flavor to the plain white rice. It is a bittersweet poem, the speaker fondly remembers his father, but there is also anger present, either towards the father for abandoning him by dying, or the speaker himself for not cherishing his father while he had the chance, or more likely,…
- 1419 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
Yeats himself said "Poetry is no rootless flower, but the speech of man" and this concept is reflected deeply in his poetic works as he expresses concerns and ideas of close regard to himself and makes them memorable to the reader through his linguistic craftsmanship and mastery of poetic techniques. The Wild Swans At Coole (hereafter WS) examines the theme of intimate change and personal yearning, whilst The Second Coming (hereafter SC) examines change in context with cultural dissolution and fear. It is because Yeats' poetry is so deeply grounded in his own human feelings and is such an artful expression of those emotions that the ideas he presents in these poems resonate with the reader long after the piece has been read.…
- 1041 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
The narrator begins using phrases like “love deceives” showing that internal pain is still present. The protagonist goes on to say that he was “shaped” by the “wrings with wrong”, which shows how much mental pain he has been through and that he has learnt from the relationship. Instead of referring to the sun as “white”, he now refers to it as the “God-curst sun”, showing that the protagonist’s emotions and attitude has changed from the previous stanzas. The final line “And a pond edged with greyish leaves” brings us back to the beginning of the poem; almost like it is a continuous…
- 912 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
In this poem, the author expressed his silent anger toward human beings and his feeling for the pathos of the sensual world by the use of simile and metaphor. From the beginning, “a lonely wolf lonelier than the angels” means the wolf is like angels in the sky that are distanced from human beings and feeling lonely with cold surroundings. Why the wolf was lonely? One of possible reasons is that he might have abandoned by his parents. As implied by his loneliness, we can presume he is eager of being loved. In line 5, the author wrote, “He fell in love with the first house he saw.” This means the house itself is not only symbolic of warm and safety, but also of company and love. Besides, we can imagine the author’s disappointment toward humanity, as in line 10, the author wrote,” Apart from God nobody ever found them so beautiful”. This suggests people are so hideous that only God would love them. On the other…
- 633 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays