English 202
1/29/06
A Path to Immortality: William Butler Yeats Sailing To Byzantium
Yeats takes the reader through a world of natural order and death, and then plays into his journey of becoming an "artifice of eternity." Ponder through this poem to stimulate your imagination into a paradise. The poem portrays Yeats wish to become something more than just a man. Instead of being forgotten and passed by, Yeats describes with rich images his becoming of a monument, to "keep a drowsy Emperor awake."
"That is no country for old men. The young / In on another's arms, birds in the trees" (1-2). Yeats being one of these old men shows his feelings of displacement in the country of the young and in love. This hidden emotion of sadness starts to show the yearning for recognition. Throwing in images of "mackerel-crowded seas," and birth the circle of life theory is put clearly into the readers mind; "Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. / Caught in that sensual music......
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Approximate Word Count: 766
Approximate Pages: 3 (260 words per double-spaced page) |