Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Keats imagery in his odes
John keats ode on
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Keats imagery in his odes
Synopsis: Sailing to Byzantium is Yeats’s ode on the hardship of old age in comparison the joy of youth which he claims is the only pride of an old man as it shows his hearts desire that is deceived by the appearance of his aging body. In the poem Yeats tries to move spiritually to Byzantium where he seeks immortality through becoming an artificial piece. Yeats ends the poem saying his wish to become an artificial piece so he is never reincarnated into old age with the memories of his youth. Thus summarizing his ideology that the splendors of youth are not worth the agony of old age.
Theme: The overall theme of the poem is the pain of not being able to do, as your heart desires. Other themes are about the pain of old age versus the joy of youth. The poem also considers the ideology of artificial superiority over natural life.
Form: It comprises four stanzas in ottava rima, each made up of eight ten-syllable lines. It uses a journey to Constantinople (Byzantium) as a metaphor for a spiritual journey. The narrator is in the first person in the story however it is ambiguous to who the narrator is as his background is never spoken of. However considering the context of the poem Yeats is probably speaking of himself.
Context: Sailing to Byzantium” is one of Yeats’s most inspired works, and one of the greatest poems of the twentieth century. Written in 1926 and included in Yeats’s greatest single collection, 1928’s The Tower
Motifs:
Music- “Those dying generations—at their song, Caught in that sensual music all neglect.”Music in this context is as hypnotizing youth, its sweet and joyful but it distracts you from the reality of life and its issues which Yeats it criticizing to show not even youth is worth old age. “Soul clap its...
... middle of paper ...
...eats constructs a loose metaphor for the changes that have occurred over the course of the poem by comparing the "dying generations" of birds in the first lines to the everlasting golden sculpture of a bird in this line.
Sensual music is symbolic of youth and human experience as different forms of art.
Allusions
Byzantium Empire stood at the geographical and cultural center of the European and Middle-Eastern world for more than one thousand years. For much of that time, and over several cycles of decline and recovery Byzantium played the role of an economic, political, and cultural superpower
Literary Features
Repetition of Gold- Using gold to metaphorically describe the sages allows our speaker to allude to the precious nature of the sages, as well.
Assonance of "fire" and "gyre." The assonance allows the word to consume the rest of the line showing its power
Emperor Justinian is identified as one of the greatest Caesars to ever rule in Europe during his reign from 527-565, during this he succeeded in reviving Roman Authority throughout his growing Byzantium Empire . As Emperor of the Byzantium Empire in the sixth and seventh century he conquered many parts of Europe restoring the control of the Roman Authority once again if only for a while . This essay will point out the extent in which Justinian succeeded Roman Authority. Although many depictions that can be argued, closer examination can be shown that through huge military successes, Architectural activities that changed the Empires value and enhanced Constantinople as the centre of the Christian World, and the legal work of the ‘Code of Justinian’ helped Justinian to revive Roman Authority. In the seventh century saw the collapse of the Byzantium Empire, which was defeated and taken over by the Ottoman-Turk Empire from the East of Constantinople. This Essay will access the reasons for decline of such a powerful empire, hit with the ‘Justinian Plague’ and eventually deteriorating after Justinian death . This saw the end to any last element of any Roman Authority in Europe.
When You are Old, by William Butler Yeats, represents and elderly woman reminiscing of her younger days. A past lover whispers to her as she looks through a photo album. Basically, Yeats is showing that as the woman gets older, she is alone, but she does not have to be lonely. She will always have her memories for companionship.
“William Butler Yeats.” Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 09 May 2014.
To begin, the use of assonance can be heard in the poem in comparing the context or appearance of the black berries to words. This can be seen in the second line of the poem, “among the fat, overripe, icy, black berries,” where words can also be “fat” as in full of positive or negative meaning, “overripe” as in exaggerated,” and “icy” as in hurtful or cold. Nonetheless, the emphasis in the vowels in the phrase makes it stand out more to the ears of the readers. Another example of assonance can be seen in the eighth line, “fall almost unbidden to my tongue,” where the vowels in “fall” and “unbidden” can be heard. According to this phrase, the speaker compares “the ripest berries” to words, seeing as both “fall” from their tongue, as if the speaker could not control the need to learn more words.
Many literary critics have observed that over the course of W. B. Yeats’ poetic career, readers can perceive a distinct change in the style of his writing. Most notably, he appears to adopt a far more cynical tone in the poems he generated in the later half of his life than in his earlier pastoral works. This somewhat depressing trend is often attributed to the fact that he is simply becoming more conservative and pessimistic in his declining years, but in truth it represents a far more significant change in his life. Throughout Yeats’ career, the poet is constantly trying to determine exactly what inspires him; early on, in such poems as “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” and “The Wild Swans at Coole,” Yeats obviously looks towards nature to find his muse, thereby generating idyllic pastoral scenery that is reminiscent of the nature-based poetry of Wordsworth. However, his later works are darkened not by his own perspective, but by the fact that he is no longer certain that nature is truly the fountain that he taps for inspiration. A number of his later poems, such as “Leda and the Swan” and “The Circus Animals’ Desertion,” employ symbolism and metaphor in order to reflect the author’s battle to find his true source. Yeats spends his career dealing with this conflict, and he eventually concludes that while nature itself may have been the source of the general ideas for many of his poems, the works themselves came to life only after he reached into the depths of his heart and sought the fuel of pure human emotions and experiences. Ultimately, he discovers that the only true inspiration comes from the trivial and mundane influences found in everyday life; the purest poetic inspiration is humanity itself.
...eme in his writing. Although the previous poems mentioned only represent a small fraction of Yeats’ writings, it is easy to see this repetitive idea. In When You Are Old the man’s love is never changing, however the woman’s realization of this is constantly wavering. Then in the poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree he wants to change his life from chaos to peace, and the lake never changes. Then in The Wild Swans at Coole the birds are always there, but the seasons change. The Second Coming also represents how mankind changes, but God’s principles are never-wavering. And lastly Sailing to Byzantium portrays how monuments never change, but what they mean to the viewers will always change. Yeats knew that this was something that future generations would also face, and therefore his poem will forever last in history but the importance of it is up to the future generations.
...s the theme of family. For example, when you truly love someone in your family, you make sure that you show them you truly love them by not only giving them a hug but also telling them that you love them. I can relate to this situation because whenever I notice that my mom is feeling down, I make sure that I tell her that I love her and she is the best mom in the world. Another theme that is present in this poem that I can relate with my life is the theme of mortality. For example, the man is obsessed with not only how but also why Annabel died. I can relate to the man in this situation because after my mom’s dog passed away about nine or ten years ago I was wondering for the longest time why she had to pass away. She wasn’t always the nicest dog, but I still loved her anyways. This poem celebrates the child-like emotions with the ideals of the Romantic era.
John Keats’s illness caused him to write about his unfulfillment as a writer. In an analysis of Keats’s works, Cody Brotter states that Keats’s poems are “conscious of itself as the poem[s] of a poet.” The poems are written in the context of Keats tragically short and painful life. In his ...
The above concept of Yeats no doubt is idealized by him from mixing up the two doctrines: Christian and Hinduism. In fact there is no incarnation in Christian doctrine of man. When a man dies he will go for spiritual journey to heaven (of course after cleansing in purgatory) as suggested by the title Sailing to Byzantium. But W. B. Yeats is so impressed and influenced by Hinduism and may be his love for earthly life so he wants to be incarnated.
William Butler Yeats was born on June thirteenth, eighteen sixty-five, at ten-forty pm, in Sandymount, Dublin (Foster, 13). He grew up lanky, untidy, slightly myopic, and extremely thin. He had black hair, high cheek bones, olive skin, and slanting eyes (Foster, 34). It was presumed he was Tubercular. As a child he was ridiculed, mainly because of his Irish heritage (Foster, 16). He accomplished many things in his life time.
In Yeats’ Byzantium, there is the symbol of the boat, and or sailing. This poem talks about aging. The opening line, “That is no country for old men” (Pg. 1147 Line 1) even states that the speaker, an old man, is leaving the country because he is too old now. In lines 15-16, the speaker states, “And therefore I have sailed the seas and come to the holy city of Byzantium.” This basically means that the speaker has lived, and now he is old, and he is going to die, and go to a better place. Although we think that Yeats is talking about Heaven, but he believed in reincarnation, so the speaker would be reincarnated into something better.
This book is a collection of the poetry, drama and essays that have been written by Yeats. The importance of this book is that it does not only make known the major contributions in poetry, drama, prose fiction and autobiography, but also criticisms which have been leveled at Yeats and these works. The criticisms herein are elaborate, taking a volume of 24 interpretative essays which have been written by different seasoned authors and poets such as Douglas Archibald, Lucy McDiarmid, Thomas Parkinson and Daniel Albright, among others.
“Sailing to Byzantium”, published in 1928, “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”, published in 1919, and “The Second Coming”, published in 1920, are all some of the most highly regarded works of William Butler Yeats. Although each poem seemingly contains its own personal ideas and focus on particular topics, one common theme is found throughout all three: death. In “Sailing to Byzantium” Yeats discusses the matter of growing old and attempting to find a way to live eternally after death has taken its toll, while in “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” he creates an internal dialogue of an Irish airman as he feels he is about to take his final flight into death, and lastly in “The Second Coming” he creates an allegory for post-war Ireland by alluding to the Apocalypse. Each of these poems is popular not only due to the incredible manner in which they were written, but rather, due to the voice in which Yeats discusses each of the poem’s respective subjects. Through his modernist style, yet traditional form, William Butler Yeats wrote “Sailing to Byzantium”, “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”, and “The Second Coming” as an attempt to answering the difficult questions that surround death in a way which resonated so strongly onto the audience that continues its legacy to this day.
The construction of the poem is in regular four-line stanzas, of which the first two stanzas provide the exposition, setting the scene; the next three stanzas encompass the major action; and the final two stanzas present the poet's reflection on the meaning of her experience.
...g as it is referred to in this poem is a cultural symbol because of how easily relatable it is to people. However, the poem itself seems to be very personal toward Yeats and his realization of old age and the things that become more important to you as you get older. It can be assumed, though, that the use of the mental picture f sailing was used for a specific reason, to help the culture understand he is talking about a trip where there is no coming back, to a place with perfect balance, just like Byzantium.