Yeats' poem Sailing to Byzantium was my favorite of the poems we were suppose to review this week. The imagery that Yeats' writes is outstanding. I can picture every word as if I was there. The first line when Yeats' writes "that is no country for old men", I picture the movie No Country For Old Men. It is basically the same thing. Both tell about the country being for youth and lively things, so old men are out of date.
The old man wants to be young again. I see this in me when I get older. The old speaker in the poem talks about going to Byzantine and trying to gain life. I don't see me doing this, but I will find my own Byzantine. Whether it is going tanning to get a bronzed body when I am 50 years old and not attractive anymore or jumping out of a plane to feel the thrill of life, I will find my Byzantine.
Many men go through a mid-life crisis and I believe this poem is talking about the speaker going through one of his. If I think harder about what I will do, it will have to be a car. I will probably buy a fast convertible and drive it across the country with some of my friends that are going through their mid-life crisis also.
The fascination with the artificial as superior to the natural is a major theme in this poem. He believes that tales are better than life. Sometimes we wish that our life was like a cartoon, and I believe this is what he (the speaker) is thinking when he writes about Byzantine. He talks about no longer taking his body as a natural thing once he is out of the natural world. This shows that he (again being the old speaker) wishes his life to be a fairytale. A fairytale never dies and the old man is getting closer and closer to death. A fairytale stays youthful and innocent it's entire life, which is the dream of the speaker and of every person in the world.
This was a very inspiring poem and one that enjoyed reading and analyzing.
Clay,
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting blog! I kept a blog for Williams' Mark Twain class last Spring and I don't remember anyone in that class every writing a blog like this, where they put themselves into the story - or rather, put the story into their lives. I particularly like, "I will find my own Byzantine."
I agree with the comment that the speaker feels tales are better than life, and I feel like that's true in our society! People are glorified after death, even if their lives weren't that great!
Also: Your mention of fairy tales makes me think it's a shame you're not in Williams' other class this Fall, Intro to Literary Theory. We are discussing fairy tales. I'm doing a lead respondent on Beauty and the Beast :)
And finally, was No Country For Old Men any good?
Katie-Rose
I feel like men fear too much the time when they will no longer be "cool" anymore.
ReplyDeleteI plan on embracing my old age and learning to laugh at myself and be the old man who is funny as hell and makes the most corny jokes of all time. I definitely agree that I will be doing whatever I can to keep the young man inside of me appeased (fast cars, bungie jumping etc.), but I can't wait for some of the things that only an old man can truly enjoy (golfing until I have a heart attack, smoking expensive cigars, and having the time of my life with the time that I have left) :)