blog 2

After having such a difficult time making it through T.S. Eliot's work, I had decided to switch over to William Butler Yeats for my third quarter paper. I found I was able to not only get through reading his poetry, but I also found myself enjoying his work. Yes, it surprised me as much as it would surprise anyone that I enjoyed reading poetry. Ironically, the poem I enjoyed the most was the most difficult one for me to understand and fully grasp what Yeats was discussing. The values and ideas expressed in "Sailing to Byzantium" are ones that I can identify with. Essentially, what Yeats was putting down for the reader was that there is a huge gap in intelligence and wisdom between the youth of society and the aged people. The narrator discussed his distaste of him his hometown (wherever that may be) and talked about his dream to go to Byzantium, a province of the Roman Empire which is now modern day Istanbul, Turkey. Byzantium was rich in Greek culture. What the narrator mostly appreciated was the beauty of the art work constructed by the Greek people. The narrator compares the youth of his hometown to music and the wisdom of the people of Byanztium to sculptures. Pretty much what he is saying is that songs last for a few minutes maybe a little longer, but sculptures and other artwork are everlasting. I identify with these values because I believe in society that we spend too much time worry about the here and now and other superficial things that nobody should really care about in the first place. Each person should strive to make a lasting impact on the world and focus on what they want to be remembered for years down the road instead of something unimportant in high school. Yeats was not bashing music by any means in this poem nor was he comparing its importance to sculptures, but it was just a metaphor for how people should be thinking. The narrator wishes to become a sculpture. I thought that was a little weird, but I totally see where he is coming form. As a former politician in Ireland, Yeats always had an opinion about everything, but it was always interesting to say the least. And, quite frankly, I find myself agreeing with him more often that not.