Essay on Poem "Sailing to Byzantium"

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Analysis of W.B. Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium" [pic] Sophia Brookshire, Yahoo! Contributor Network Jan 20, 2010 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here." • More: • Yeats • • tweet0 • Print Flag Close Post a comment [pic]William Butler Yeats' poem "Sailing to Byzantium" is concerned with the passage of time, and how someone can become eternal. Yeats lived from 1865 to 1939; so this poem, which was written in 1926, reflects his fears about aging and becoming irrelevant. The narrator of this poem is concerned with the idea of the human/animal condition, which is that we are born, we live, and then we die. The narrator seeks out a place where he will be able to join the monuments of history, so that he will be able to live on forever. He chooses Byzantium, present day Istanbul, because of its rich history and monuments dedicated to the past. He hopes that by becoming a monument himself, he will be able to defeat the human condition. That is no country for old men. The young In one another's arms, birds in the trees, -Those dying generations-at their song, The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, Fish, flesh, or fowl, commended all summer long Whatever is begotten, born, and dies Caught in that sensual music all neglect Monuments of unageing intellect (1.1-8). The first line of this poem states that in the narrator's country the young are the ones who are in power, and the old are becoming has-beens. It is fairly safe to say that the country Yeats is referring to, in this first line, is Ireland. In 1922, the Irish Free State was established in Ireland by the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Up until that point Ireland had been controlled by England; so with this new separation came a new generation of leaders. The old laws and government officials were replaced by younger revolutionaries. Yeats served as a Senator

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