A World of Changes and Things Staying the Same

804 Words2 Pages

One of the greatest poets to ever walk the Earth, produced one of the most mind blowing topics to ever come up in mankind, and Mr. McGee is very fond of him too, his name is William Butler Yeats. Why is it that some things stay the same and others change? In the literature book, many stories and poems are by Yeats describing this very fact. That in life, you have things that will forever stay the same and some things that change for better or worse. Have you ever thought about it, what makes us do the things that we do? Is there something that makes us change? Yeats writes 5 poems that specifically talks about this topic; When you are old, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, The Wild Swan at Coole, The Second Coming, and Sailing to Byzantium. To begin with, one of the best short poems Yeats ever wrote is called When You Are Old. We live in a world that you watch people become who they are, and a world where we watch people fade out of society. What the poem talks about is when he was watching people grow old, he saw many disadvantages physically and mentally. But at the same time he saw something he didn’t expect, he saw some things for old people that would never change. The things that change were physically make up. They look older with wrinkles and never getting enough sleep because you are hurting from years of wear and tear. Yeats says that there is going to be some things you will never forget no matter what age. “But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you And loved the sorrows of your changing face” (Pg. 1140, Lines 7-8) Basically what this line means is that love is one of those things that will never change. When you are older, there is one thing you can still do, and that’s dreaming. No matter what age you can still have them ... ... middle of paper ... ...147, Line 1-3) This poem has a lot to do with age. There is no trick to looking young and staying the same age forever. That is one huge thing that changes all the time, every day, every year, you get older. You change in appearances almost every day. But what stays the same, is the things you believe in. That should never really change in a major way. In conclusion, there are five really important poems William Butler Yeats wrote that are contained inside the literature book. They have a very interesting topic that can be discussed forever. That is the difference of staying the same and changing. In my essay I discussed each from each story. These five stories are; When you are old, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, The Wild Swan at Coole, The Second Coming, and Sailing to Byzantium. Each one possess the others don’t, but at the same time have the same things as well.

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