Out of Mind Versus Out of World: An Analysis of William Yeats's "Sailing to Byzantium" and "Wild Swans at Coole"

The similarities between the poems lie in their abilities to utilize imagery as a means to enhance the concept of the fleeting nature that life ultimately has and to also help further elaborate the speaker’s opinion towards their own situation. In Keats’ poem, dark and imaginative images are used to help match with the speaker’s belief that both love and death arise from fate itself. Here, Keats describes the beauty and mystery of love with images of “shadows” and “huge cloudy symbols of a high romance” to illustrate his belief that love comes from fate, and that he is sad to miss out on such an opportunity when it comes time for his own death.

There is a strong contrast in this poem between the old, weary, lonely poet and the apparently ever-youthful, energetic and powerful swans. Yeats’ journey to Byzantium in “Sailing to Byzantium” is due to the fact that he wishes to become immortal, to flee the dreaded progression of ageing. He rejects Ireland as it is “no country for old men” and criticizes those who get too caught up in the wonders of life and who have no concerns about growing old “Caught in that sensual music all neglect, Monuments of unageing intellect”. The poet claims that one, namely, “an aged man”, can only break free from the spell of ageing if he is allow his spirit to break free “A tattered coat upon a stick, unless soul clap its hands and sing and louder sing”. Yeats obviously wants to bypass old age and become immortal in this poem and begs the “sages” to allow him to break away from his body, “a dying animal”, and to gather him “into the artifice of eternity”. In both “The Wild Swans at Coole” and “Sailing to Byzantium, a strong contrast is made. However, in “The Wild Swans at Coole”, Yeats merely seems envious of the youthful swans, in contrast to “Sailing to Byzantium” where he seems angry with the young who appear to waste their youthfulness. I found this theme very thought-provoking and therefore an entertaining theme to read about.

The work of William Butler Yeats is full of descriptive, evocative imagery, deep personal feelings and strong political opinions. Yeats sets up dynamic contrasts in every one of his poems which for me makes his poetry interesting and thought-provoking. I found these traits particularly evident in “The Circus Animals’ Desertion” as Yeats discusses a variety of poems, prose and plays written by himself throughout his life. These works of art represent the full breadth of Yeats’ work - The themes of life, death immortality and of conflicting dualities. Bloom (1970) proposes the theory that Yeats shares with the Romantic poets “a conviction that the most poetic images are necessarily those of ‘unfulfilled and unfillable desire” and according to Bloom Yeats shares with Shelley his deepest fear of growing old and losing his ability to write beautiful meaningful poetry and to be immortalised through his work. This genuine self-doubt in his ability is particularly evident in this poem. The resignation and fear is implicit in the concluding rhyming couplet in each stanza.,

I have really been fascinated when I read William B. Yeats’ poem named “The Old Men Admiring Themselves In The water” which seems too short but includes more than what it looks in terms of meaning. Here, I tried to analyze his great but seeming little poem in terms of the physical characteristics of the poem,literary devices used in poem , emotions I have been felt by these literary devices,meaning of the poem and finally Why I chose this poem to analyze .

yeats seems forlorn in the ending because the leaving of the swans symbolize another year lost for him. he describes the swans as always coming back but he knows that one day he own't ciontinue to exsist. Their diction remains the same, yet their tones differ in the course of their last

Through the use of vigorous, ritualistic imagery and war-like diction, Yeats accentuates the inauspicious course of events the world has faced. Yeats, in the first stanza, uses violent and warlike imagery and diction to illustrates that the world is on the threshold of an apocalyptic revelation. Yeats describes that the world is going to “fall apart,” and that “mere anarchy is [loosened] upon the world,” and ‘everywhere...innocence is drowned.” The use of violent diction in the first stanza contributes to the concept that world is going to end, and that humanity cannot recover from the destruction the world has caused, but Yeats uses ritualistic imagery to describe “a rough beast” with “a shape [of a] lion body and head of a man” to show that this “New Age” will bring some hope. William Yeats uses this violent and ritualistic imagery and diction to illustrate that in order to bring a new era, the old epoch must die violently, which is his concept of “the second coming.” Yeats believes that a violent revolution will bring hope to a new era. Similarly, how the Russian Revolution was destructive and brought an end to an era and started a new age which bought Russia to new heights, Yeats believes that a violent end of the world can bring the new world to new

As years pass further away from childish thoughts, adults are allowed to reflect on their youth, while the youth dutifully study the already matured. This is exemplified in the writings of E. B. White and W. B. Yeats, and the insight gained upon reading them. In Yeats’s essay, “Reveries over Childhood and Youth”, he recounts of how his grandfather was a feared man deserving of admiration. “Once More to the Lake” is a recollection of White’s experience and emotions pertaining to his childhood summers spent at the lake. In both these essays, Yeats and White show that with age comes wisdom and respect, but it does not inherently entail contentment or satisfaction.

The speaker in Yeats’s’ “When You Are Old” is utterly captivated by the woman he depicts as being old in the poem. His amorous attitude toward her is unchanging, yet afflictive because he cannot get her to understand his undying love for her. Furthermore, these feelings are gracefully portrayed through dreamy imagery, a bittersweet tone, a gentle quatrain form, and soft diction.

"The Wild Swans at Coole" is a poem that deals with the aging process of William Butler Yeats. It is a deeply personal poem that explores the cycle of life through nature. The poem is set in Coole Park in autumn, which is located on Lady Gregory’s estate. The poet is on or near the shore of a large pond, and is observing the swans. It has been nineteen years since the first time he came to this place, and it is on this visit that he begins to realize that he is getting older. The poet parallels nature in the poem, as it represents his present state while, in the poem, there is a contrast between the poet and the swan because the swan is used as a metaphor for the poet’s youth.

In William Butler Yeats poem “Leda and the Swan”, he uses the fourteen lines of the traditional sonnet form in a radical, modernist style. He calls up a series of unforgettable, bizarre images of an immediate physical event using abstract descriptions in brief language. Through structure and language Yeats is able to paint a powerful sexual image to his readers without directly giving the meaning of the poem.

Analysis of William Butler Yeats' Poems; When You Are Old, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, The Wild Swans at Coole, The Second Coming and Sailing to Byzantium

These themes such as love, conflict, ambition and morality, allow the reader to relate to and empathise with the poet. A good example of this is WSC, a poem in which Yeats explores themes such as love, loneliness and the passage of time. The most interesting lines occur in the second half of the poem in which he describes the swans as they "paddle in the cold companionable streams, or climb the air". Once I unravelled the symbolism and understood what they have to say about relationships and the difference between a shared life and a lonely existence, I feel I really got to the core of the poem. There is almost an envious tone in this statement. The streams may be cold, but the swans have one another. They are united, and time does not seem to touch them. ''Their hearts have not grown old''. This is similarly true of An Irish Airman Foresees His Death (IAF), when the poet muses on Robert Gregory's decision to volunteer for service in the nascent British Air Force. Speaking as Gregory, he says, "A lonely impulse of delight drove to this tumult in the clouds." The image of a young person knowingly heading into danger and almost certain destruction is poignant, beautiful, and thought provoking. This poem deals with the theme of personal fulfilment, Gregory is bored with having a safe life. Something we can all relate to as it is easy to become entrapped in the mundane tasks of everyday life

James Najarian praises the youth and weakness of poet in his “Keats's Boyish Imagination.” Keats was a very young poet who died only at the age of twenty-six. In order to create a fully "mature" Keats one has to drop his early verse as well as most of the four-thousand-line Endymion and the comic verse that both began and ended his writing career. From more recent work it had been accepted that Keats sometimes wrote and acted like the young man who was, as he put it, “five feet and not a lord” (Najarian, 2009, p. 545). A young man, Keats progressively achieved poetic and political maturity, due to this so many biographers like Milnes, Aileen Ward, Amy Lowell, and Walter Jackson Bate had tried to create his story. Keats looked gladly and intentionally immature and from his organized immaturity, he challenged the mature force of established

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

Somewhat paradoxically, Yeats viewed nature as immortal in comparison with humans. Nature, represented here by the Swans, endures while men age and die.