A pray for my Daughter The summary of A prayer for My Daughter by William Butler Yeats opens up with an image of the poet’s daughter who is fast asleep in her cradle. The storm he talks about at the very onset of the poem is nothing but a contrast to the quiet sleep of the baby. The poet is worried about his child and his gloominess of mind is well portrayed through the first stanza itself. In the first stanza itself‚ the backdrop of the weather with the storm raging is nothing but a potent
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The poem "Sailing to Byzantium" is one of the most substantial pieces included in W.B. Yeats ’s final book "The Tower". Created in the later years of his life‚ many of the poems in The Tower deal with the issues of old age and leaving the natural world‚ but none so strongly as "Sailing to Byzantium". Byzantium itself symbolized eternity to Yeats; it was an ancient city that represented a place of artistic and intellectual permanence. Yeats believed that ""in early Byzantium‚ maybe never before or
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What is “Sailing to Byzantium” About? The poem “Sailing to Byzantium”‚ written by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)‚ is seemingly written about how time affects us‚ and how someone can become eternal to avoid its effects. As the poem was written in 1926‚ with Yeats at 61 years if age‚ the poem reflects his fears of aging and becoming obsolete‚ with the main theme being that of the mutual human/animal condition: We are born‚ we live and then we die. The narrator of this poem seeks a place where he
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Sailing to Byzantium Poetry means many things to people all over the world. Poetry is an outlet or artistic and creative way of telling a story or expressing your emotions. It is something that does not require a lot of skill‚ but imagination and feeling. “Sailing to Byzantium” written by William Butler Yeats is a poem that speaks of the craving for something one cannot have and the immortality of people‚ art and intellect‚ and greatness. “Sailing to Byzantium” is a poem based on the theme longing
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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
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William Butler Yeats is widely considered to be one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. He belonged to the Protestant‚ Anglo-Irish minority that had controlled the economic‚ political‚ social‚ and cultural life of Ireland since at least the end of the seventeenth century. Most members of this minority considered themselves English people who merely happened to have been born in Ireland‚ but Yeats was staunch in affirming his Irish nationality. Although he lived in London for fourteen
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the 20th century. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. Yeats’s father‚ John Butler Yeats‚ was a barrister who eventually became a portrait painter. His mother‚ formerly Susan Pollexfen‚ was the daughter of a prosperous merchant in Sligo‚ in western Ireland. Through both parents Yeats claimed kinship with various Anglo-Irish Protestant families who are mentioned in his work. Normally‚ Yeats would have been expected to identify with his Protestant tradition—which represented a powerful
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poetry of William Butler Yeats deals with a variety of different themes from the political and historical to the magical and mystical. Whilst his patriotic poems are a call to arms for those like him who desired a return to the age of revolutionary heroes‚ it is Yeats’ poems that deal with myth‚ magic and symbolism that reveal the deeper side of his poetic imagination. This essay will deal with the related poems Sailing to Byzantium and its sequel of sorts Byzantium. Sailing to Byzantium is a poem
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SAILING TO BYZANTIUM “Sailing to Byzantium‚” first published in 1928 as part of Yeats’s collection‚ The Tower‚ contains only four stanzas and yet is considered to be one of the most effective expressions of Yeats’s arcane poetic “system‚” exploring tensions between art and ordinary life and demonstrating how‚ through an imaginative alchemy‚ the raw materials of life can be transformed into something enduring. In “Sailing to Byzantium‚” the artist/speaker transforms himself into a work of art‚ and
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whatever the outcome. By eighteen eighty-six he begun to publish regularly (Foster‚ 52). The central theme of Yeats poems is Ireland‚ its history‚ contemporary public life‚ and folklore‚ as well as‚ Celtic folklore. He came to associate poetry with religious ideas and sentiments (Yeats 2‚ 1). He was interested in folktales as a part of an exploration of national heritage and Celtic identity. Yeats was fascinated with reincarnation‚ communication with the dead‚ mediums‚ spiritualism‚ supernatural systems
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