January 7, 2012: Difference between revisions
From Gerald R. Lucas
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{{Large|Sailing to Byzantium}}<br /> | {{Journal-Top}}<div style="padding-top: 30px;"> | ||
By: '''[[ | {{Center|{{Large|Sailing to Byzantium}}{{refn|Yeats wrote in ''A Vision'': “I think that if I could be given a month of antiquity and leave to spend it where I chose, I would spend it in [[w:Byzantium|Byzantium]] (Istanbul today) a little before [[w:Justinian I|Justinian]] opened St. Sophia and closed the [[w:Academy of Plato|Academy of Plato]]. . . . I think that in early Byzantium, maybe never before or since in recorded history, religious, aesthetic, and practical life were one, that architects and artificers . . . spoke to the multitude in gold and silver. The painter, the mosaic worker, the worker in gold and silver, the illuminator of sacred books were almost impersonal, almost perhaps without the consciousness of individual design, absorbed in their subject matter and that the vision of a whole people.”}}<br /> | ||
By: '''[[w:W. B. Yeats|W. B. Yeats]]''' ([[w:Sailing to Byzantium|1927]]) }} | |||
<div style="display: flex; justify-content: center; padding: 25px 0 25px 0;"> | |||
{| style="width: 600px;" | |||
| | |||
<poem> | <poem> | ||
{{Center|1}} | |||
That is no country for old men. The young | That is no country for old men. The young | ||
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees | In one another’s arms, birds in the trees | ||
—Those dying generations—at their song, | |||
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, | The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, | ||
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long | Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long {{ln|5}} | ||
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. | Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. | ||
Caught in that sensual music all neglect | Caught in that sensual music all neglect | ||
Monuments of unageing intellect. | Monuments of unageing intellect. | ||
{{Center|2}} | |||
An aged man is but a paltry thing, | An aged man is but a paltry thing, | ||
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless | A tattered coat upon a stick, unless {{ln|10}} | ||
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing | Soul clap its hands and sing,{{refn|The poet [[w:William Blake|William Blake]] saw his brother’s soul rising to Heaven, “clapping his hands for joy.”}} and louder sing | ||
For every tatter in its mortal dress, | For every tatter in its mortal dress, | ||
Nor is there singing school but studying | Nor is there singing school but studying | ||
Monuments of its own magnificence; | Monuments of its own magnificence; | ||
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come | And therefore I have sailed the seas and come {{ln|15}} | ||
To the holy city of Byzantium. | To the holy city of Byzantium. | ||
{{Center|3}} | |||
O sages standing in God’s holy fire | O sages standing in God’s holy fire | ||
As in the gold mosaic of a wall, | As in the gold mosaic of a wall, | ||
Come from the holy fire, | Come from the holy fire, {{H:title|A reel or spool on which something is wound.|perne}} in a {{H:title|A vortex. Yeats associated a gyre with the spinning of fate.|gyre}}, | ||
And be the singing-masters of my soul. | And be the singing-masters of my soul. {{ln|20}} | ||
Consume my heart away; sick with desire | Consume my heart away; sick with desire | ||
And fastened to a dying animal | And fastened to a dying animal | ||
| Line 30: | Line 36: | ||
Into the artifice of eternity. | Into the artifice of eternity. | ||
Once out of nature I shall never take | {{Center|4}} | ||
Once out of nature I shall never take {{ln|25}} | |||
My bodily form from any natural thing, | My bodily form from any natural thing, | ||
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make | But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make | ||
Of hammered gold and gold enameling | Of hammered gold and gold enameling | ||
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake; | To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;{{refn|I have read somewhere that the Emperor’s palace at Byzantium was a tree made of gold and silver, and artificial birds that sang. [Yeats’ note.]}} | ||
Or set upon a golden bough to sing | Or set upon a golden bough to sing {{ln|30}} | ||
To lords and ladies of Byzantium | To lords and ladies of Byzantium | ||
Of what is past, or passing, or to come. | Of what is past, or passing, or to come. | ||
</poem> | </poem> | ||
|}</div> | |||
= | {{Rlnk|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/LitWiki/comments/tv8v2n/yeats_sailing_to_byzantium/}} | ||
{{ | {{Notes}} | ||
{{2012|state=expanded}} | {{2012|state=expanded}} | ||
[[Category:01/2012]] | [[Category:01/2012]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:William Butler Yeats]] | ||
[[Category:Annotated]] | |||
Latest revision as of 09:37, 29 May 2022
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1 That is no country for old men. The young 2 An aged man is but a paltry thing, 3 O sages standing in God’s holy fire 4 Once out of nature I shall never take 25 |
notes
- ↑ Yeats wrote in A Vision: “I think that if I could be given a month of antiquity and leave to spend it where I chose, I would spend it in Byzantium (Istanbul today) a little before Justinian opened St. Sophia and closed the Academy of Plato. . . . I think that in early Byzantium, maybe never before or since in recorded history, religious, aesthetic, and practical life were one, that architects and artificers . . . spoke to the multitude in gold and silver. The painter, the mosaic worker, the worker in gold and silver, the illuminator of sacred books were almost impersonal, almost perhaps without the consciousness of individual design, absorbed in their subject matter and that the vision of a whole people.”
- ↑ The poet William Blake saw his brother’s soul rising to Heaven, “clapping his hands for joy.”
- ↑ I have read somewhere that the Emperor’s palace at Byzantium was a tree made of gold and silver, and artificial birds that sang. [Yeats’ note.]
