Yeats’ Sailing to Byzantium
In "The Circus Animals' Desertion," W. B. Yeats asserted that his images "[g]rew in pure mind" (630). But the golden bird of "Sailing to Byzantium" may make us feel that "pure mind," although compelling, is not sufficient explanation. Where did that singing bird come from? Yeats's creative eclecticism, blending the morning's conversation with philosophical abstractions, makes the notion of one and only one source for any image implausible: see Frank O'Connor's comments on the genesis of "Lapis Lazuli," for example (211-22). We cannot discard Yeats's note to the poem, "I have read somewhere that in the Emperor's palace at Byzantium was a tree made of gold and silver, and artificial birds that sang" (825), although its first four words sound suspiciously like the flimsy cloak of respectability that Yeats threw over his boldest inventions. Some have suggested that the bird came from his reading of Byzantine history, Gibbon, or even Hans Christian Andersen (Jeffares 257). But a previously unacknowledged source is worth considering: Lear's consoling speech to Cordelia in the play's final act, as they are led off to prison and death.
Yeats was greatly moved by King Lear and referred to it with some frequency in print over 40 years, with the references intensifying as he aged. Whether calling it "mad and profound" in February 1926 (Frayne and Johnson 464), several months before writing "Sailing to Byzantium," or explicitly envisioning himself as like Lear-elderly yet fierce, inspired by "frenzy," in 'An Acre of Grass"-the play and the aged king were powerful in his imagination. Thus, when we read Yeats's wish to be transfigured, we should turn again to King Lear:
Once out of nature I shall...
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...onal-the aging man, artist, parent, menaced by the inevitable; it spoke to him of art's power to combat the world's terrors. Whether one escaped imprisonment by becoming a singing bird or sang and prayed in a prison from which the only escape was death, art transformed by love was the most powerful human defense against evil and mortality.
Works Cited
Frayne, John P., and Cotton Johnson, eds. Uncollected Prose by W. B. Yeats. vol. 2. New York: Columbia UP, 1975.
Jeffares, A. Norman. A Commentary on the Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford UP, 1968.
O'Connor, Frank. My Father's Son. New York: Knopf, 1969.
Shakespeare, William. King Lear Ed. Kenneth Muir. London: Methuen, 1971.
Yeats, William Butler. The Variorum Edition of the Poems of W. B. Yeats. Ed. Peter Allt and Russell K. Alspach. New York: Macmillan, 1973.
Keats, John. “The Eve of St. Agnes”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic
Ezra Jack Keats: A Virtual Exhibit. The University of Southern Mississippi De Grummond Children's Literature Collection. Web. 19 July 2010. .
We can not fully comprehend an author unless we know their background, and Stephen King’s personal life really inspired me and made me realize that it’s not about where you come from. Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine to housewife Nellie Pillsbury and door to door vacuum salesman Donald King. King...
David Ward. Yeats’s Conflicts With His Audience, 1897-1917. ELH, Vol. 49, No. 1. (Spring, 1982).
Stephen Edwin King was the son of Donald King and Ruth Pillsbury-King. He was born on September 21st, 1947 in the town of Portland, Maine. Stephen’s dad, Donald, abandoned the family when Stephen was very young. Stephen grew up with his hard working mother and his older brother, David. Stephen and his family moved around a lot throughout his childhood, but they finally settled in Durham, Maine when Stephen was eleven. Stephen was a student at Durham Grammar School, and he continued his schooling at Lisbon Falls High School and graduated in 1966.Throughout Stephen’s years in school he was an introverted child. He read many comic books and fantasy-horror fiction novels, and he loved to watch science fiction and monster movies in his free time. Stephen wrote many short stories while he was in high school, and he even won an essay contest. Aside from his schooling, Stephen was played on his high school’s football team and he was in a band called the MoonSpinners. After high school, Stephen went to the University of Maine to major in English. While in college, Stephen took many writing classes and continued writing his stories. He also wrote a column in the University’s newspaper. He tried to make money off of his writings, but since he got a small amount of income for his short stories he had to work other odd jobs as well. He graduated from the university with a B.A. in English in 1970. After graduating from university, Stephen married Tabitha Spruce whom he later had three children with, and he began teaching at Hampden Academy. In 1973 Stephen’s first novel, Carrie, was published, so Stephen quit his teaching job to become a full time author. Stephen has published many works since 1973.
We all have cravings, be it for snacks or sweets, there is always something we desire. We crave horror in the same way. In Stephen King’s essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” he argues that people need to watch horror films in order to release the negative emotions within us. King believes that people feel enjoyment while watching others be terrorized or killed in horror movies. King’s argument has elements that are both agreeable and disagreeable. On one hand he is acceptable when claiming we like the thrill and excitement that comes from watching horror movies; however, his views regarding that the fun comes from seeing others suffer cannot be agreed with because the human condition is not as immoral as he claims it to be.
Yeats, William Butler. "Adam's Curse." Western Wind. 4th ed. Ed. John Frederick Nims and David Mason. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2000. 431-32.
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.
Stephen Kings childhood plays a big role in his future career as a writer. Stephen King was brought into the world on September 21, 1947, at the Maine General Hospital in Portland ("Stephen King." ). He was his parents only natural-born child. King had one adopted brother, David who was two years older, and his parents, Donald Edwin King and Ruth P...
Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21, 1947 at the Maine General Hospital in Portland, Maine. His parents were Donald Edwin King and Ruth Pillsbury King. Stephen being the only natural born child in the family and his older brother David having been adopted at birth two years earlier.
Keats, John. John Keats – The Major Works. Ed. Elizabeth Cook. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Throughout life, it is very apparent that things don’t always stay the same. It is also true to say that certain places, people, or things never change. The matter of change and stability can not only alter your life, but emotions too. Some people hate the same things happening over and over again and thrive for change. On the other hand, instability only causes problems for some people. This concept is also discussed greatly in the world of poetry, especially in that of Yeats. Critic Richard Ellmann wrote that Yeat’s poetry is in fact about the opposition between “the world of change” and the world of “changelessness”. This analysis is very relevant. In Yeats’ poems: “When you are Old”, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”, “The Wild Swans at Coole”, “The Second Coming”, and “Sailing to Byzantium” all show the struggle and opposition between change and stability in the world.
“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.
Author of poetry, William Butler Yeats, wrote during the twentieth century which was a time of change. It was marked by world wars, revolutions, technological innovations, and also a mass media explosion. Throughout Yeats poems he indirectly sends a message to his readers through the symbolism of certain objects. In the poems The Lake Isle of Innisfree, The wild Swans at Cole, and Sailing to Byzantium, all by William Yeats expresses his emotional impact of his word choices and symbolic images.
The importance of this book is that it contains some of the works of poetry which were carried out by William Yeats. Arguably, the most salient feature in the book is the attempt at portraying the shift that characterized Yeats in his work, so that his works are arranged almost chronologically to underscore this standpoint. Works that depict him as a bard of the Celtic Twilight, reviving Rosicrucian symbols and legends are the most frontal. These are followed up by works which show the shift away from plush romanticism. The same are exhibited by the heavy presence of incantatory rhythms such as “I will arise and go… and go to Innisfree”. The same is seen in the lyrics, “as passionate and cold as the dawn”.