Changeless Change

The world is a remarkable place of change yet it holds a changelessness as well. Every spring the rain falls and new growth is seen as new life forms begin to sprout or take their first breath, yet in the fall the living things, especially in the case of plants, begin to wither away and by winter they no longer remain. It is when the spring returns that life makes its grand re-entry and new forms of the same life begin to develop. This is only one of the world’s many examples of when will change and yet remain the same. In fact many cannot see the world without both change and stability because they seem to lie hand in hand with one another. It is a similar topic, a cyclic topic, which the poet W. B. Yeats represents so often in his work. His poems, When You Are Old, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, The Wild Swans at Coole, The Second Coming, and Sailing to Byzantium all are developed in a dimensional form where in both the change as well as the stability of the world can be found. When reading Yeats’ poetry one cannot help but notice the difference between the two and how they are so clearly represented as factors in the ever changing world that seems to be constantly the same. This form is developed in each of the poems listed and allows this view of the world to be better understood by all those who read the poetry of Yeats.

Change and stability can both be seen in the first of Yeats’ poems, When You Are Old. When Yeats was a younger man he wrote this poem seemingly to the woman who rejected his offer of marriage at one point in time. The poem begins by stating that it should not be read by its intended reader until she is old and weary and then she must pick up this poem and she will understand the love she lost when she gave up Ye...

... middle of paper ...

...me. The ideas Yeats presents his readers with is the fact that change and changelessness coexist with one another and one cannot be without the other. He is able to explain this very well in his poems including When You Are Old, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, The Wild Swans at Coole, The Second Coming, and Sailing to Byzantium. Each of these poems has its own way of approaching this idea yet each and every one does express the ideas of change and changelessness even when the ways in which they do so are not entirely obvious to the readers. In the simple poetic lines and observations that Yeats presents his readers are able to gain insight into his own life as well as a deeper understanding of how the world around they could possibly work and also become more willing to accept changes when they happen and be happy with the stability they can see present in their lives.