Starting an essay on the works of W.B. Yates is not one of an easy task. The poems of “When You Are Old”, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”, “The Wild Swans of Coole”, “The Second Coming”, and last “Sailing to Byzantium” are all one of change. I truly have had enough of the poems about change, but we are working on the poets of the Industrial Revolution. Most of Yeats poems are describing both the physical side of change as well as the metaphysical side. They are quite intriguing his poems are. There is a world of change within a world of changelessness. The poem that is first on my list is “When You Are Old”. This poem is a poem that Yeats writes when he loses a woman he really loves because of why he loves her. He wrote the poem so that when she (the girl) gets older she will know the mistake she made for leaving a man who loved her for her (Yeats). “But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you and loved the sorrows of your changing face:” (Yeats 1140). He also said in this poem that he would want her to get a since of sadness when she looked at the book. Which made feel like he still loved her but he also wanted her to remember her mistake and feel bad about it. It is a sad poem without a doubt but it is one with that of changing among the physical side but not on the spiritual side. Yeats was a character that would frequently go away from the big city and travel to very rural areas just to get away or get a change in life and that is what he does in the poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”. Within this poem our author is telling us how beautiful and tranquil this place is. “And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: And I shall have peace there, for the peace comes dripping slow,” (Yeats 1141). As Yeats is telling you of... ... middle of paper ... ... is no country for old men. The young In one another’s arms, birds in the trees-Those dying generations- at their song” (Yeats 1147). Throughout this poem the old man describes to us that as your body gets old your soul gets young. That right there is all around change, a change in the physical side of things but the metaphysical side as well. It astounds me how an author like Yeats was so far ahead of his time in his writings. The fact that he is not afraid to say the big city is not the best and amazing place. Also how Yeats told us poems that make think harder on life and encourage us to accept the change that is coming for one day we will be free of this body we are dragging around. As the days go on I start to see myself worry for the future ahead, but I think now thanks to the poems by Yeats I have learned to live with it and not let it bother me anymore.
The narrator in “Battle Royal”, by Ralph Ellison, is too naive and meek to challenge his place in a society ruled by whites. He is a young, black man trapped in a world blighted with social inequality with limited opportunity to advance in life just because of his race. He is torn apart by his grandfather's advice and by his desire to please members of white society. Ellison uses satire and symbolism to depict the narrators struggle for equality and identity.
Many key words jut out, giving us clues to which Yeats is describing. The most significant is “Love” on the tenth line. “Love” is capitalized representing William Yeats himself. Yeats or “Love” fled because he knew it was the best for her. When one loves another unconditionally sacrifices must be made; in this case ending the relationship was the solution. Two other key words are located in the sixth line, “false” and “true”. These words are used to exemplify the love she received from her past relationships. Some men truly loved her while others were artificial with their...
...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.
The world is changing and evolving at an astounding rate. Within the last one hundred years, the Western community has seen advances in technology and medicine that has improved the lifestyles and longevity of almost every individual. Within the last two hundred years, we have seen two World Wars, and countless disputes over false borders created by colonialists, slavery, and every horrid form of human suffering imaginable! Human lifestyles and cultures are changing every minute. While our grandparents and ancestors were growing-up, do you think that they ever imagined the world we live in today? What is to come is almost inconceivable to us now. In this world, the only thing we can be sure of is that everything will change. With all of these transformations happening, it is a wonder that a great poet may write words over one hundred years ago, that are still relevant in today’s modern world. It is also remarkable that their written words can tell us more about our present, than they did about our past. Is it just an illusion that our world is evolving, or do these great poets have the power to see into the future? In this brief essay, I will investigate the immortal characteristics of poetry written between 1794 and 1919. And, I will show that these classical poems can actually hold more relevance today, than they did in the year they were written. Along the way, we will pay close attention to the style of the poetry, and the strength of words and symbols used to intensify the poets’ revelations.
Time is endlessly flowing by and its unwanted yet pending arrival of death is noted in the two poems “When I Have Fears,” by John Keats and “Mezzo Cammin,” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Keats speaks with no energy; only an elegiac tone of euphoric sounds wondering if his life ends early with his never attained fame. He mentions never finding a “fair creature” (9) of his own, only experiencing unrequited love and feeling a deep loss of youth’s passion. Though melancholy, “Mezzo Cammin,” takes a more conversational tone as Longfellow faces what is commonly known as a midlife crisis. The two poems progressions contrast as Keats blames his sorrow for his lack of expression while Longfellow looks at life’s failures as passions never pursued. In spite of this contrast, both finish with similar references to death. The comparable rhyme and rhythm of both poems shows how both men safely followed a practiced path, never straying for any spontaneous chances. The ending tones evoking death ultimately reveal their indications towards it quickly advancing before accomplish...
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 ...
One that I really think is very much like the poem is “I could see boys going down under street lights because they were mean and tough and hated the world, and it was too late
then what is the true nature verse and why is it a ?toil? for the poet? Also, if Yeats cannot use poetry to influence the world around him, then what is his role as a poet? As ?
Similarly in Yeats’s poem, the awareness of death is expressed in the opening lines of the poem ‘I know that I shall meet my fate | Somewhere among the clouds above;’ (1,2). However, as opposed to Shakespeare’s poem, Yeats’s speaker is accepting death at the hands of war. ‘Somewhere among the clouds above’ (2) is a metaphor for death in battle in the sky. This idyllic description is in contrast to what it is referencing, which is a brutal death in war. The speaker’s acceptance of death is expressed in the closing line of the poem. He concludes that a life in which he faces death is more thrilling than a li...
The poem begins with a narrator questioning a Knight at arms. The Knight is seen wandering around lifelessly and listlessly. Not only is he lifeless, but, around him, the whole forest is dying as well. "The sedge has withered from the Lake/ And no birds sing!" (Keats, p506 lines 3-4) The Knight is feverish, a word Keats uses to depict starvation and intense longing. The color on the Knight's cheeks is fading like the flora.
Arguably one of John Keats’ most famous poems, “Ode to a nightingale” in and of itself is an allegory on the frail, conflicting aspects of life while also standing as a commentary on the want to escape life’s problems and the unavoidability of death. Keats’ poem utilizes a heavy amount of symbolism, simile and allusion to idealize nature as a perfect, almost mystical, world that holds no problems while using imagery taken from nature, combined with alliteration and assonance, to idealize the dream of escape from the problems life often presents; more specifically, aging and our inevitable deaths by allowing the reader to feel as if they are experiencing the speaker’s experience listening to the nightingale.
In order to experience true sorrow one must feel true joy to see the beauty of melancholy. However, Keats’s poem is not all dark imagery, for interwoven into this poem is an emerging possibility of resurrection and the chance at a new life. The speaker in this poem starts by strongly advising against the actions and as the poem continues urges a person to take different actions. In this poem, the speaker tells of how to embrace life by needing the experience of melancholy to appreciate the true joy and beauty of
Although, this poem can be seen as a poem showing impartialness rather than overall being dark and grim. This poem is a great example of Modernism being displayed by William Butler Yeats, because of its speakers unusual thought process. Also, even though William Butler Yeats had a great impact on Modernism, especially during his time, he still wrote in the Victorian style. Therefore, William Butler Yeats was a great poet, who greatly influenced the style of writing during his time, and the Modernistic style of writing after him.
This refrain enforces his disgust at the type of money hungry people that the Irish have become. In the third and fourth stanza, however, Yeats completely changes the tone of his poetry. He praises the romantics of Irish history, such as Rob...
Yeats and Eliot are two chief modernist poet of the English Language. Both were Nobel Laureates. Both were critics of Literature and Culture expressing similar disquietude with Western civilization. Both, prompted by the Russian revolution perhaps, or the violence and horror of the First World War, pictured a Europe that was ailing, that was literally falling apart, devoid of the ontological sense of rational purpose that fuelled post-Enlightenment Europe and America(1). All these similar experience makes their poetry more valuable to compare and to contrast since their thoughts were similar yet one called himself Classicist(Eliot) who wrote objectively and the other considered himself "the last Romantic" because of his subjective writing and his interest in mysticism and the spiritual. For better understanding of these two poets it is necessary to mention some facts and backgrounds on them which influenced them to incorporate similar (to some extent) historical motif in their poetry.