Sailing to Byzantium
I came across this poem the other day - by WB Yeats - Sailing to Byzantium.
First time I've ever read it - but the power of the words stopped me in my tracks - like a fierce blow to the stomach.
Especially the following lines:
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick,
Not cruel or gratuitous - to my mind anyway - just raw, emotional and honest - and it speaks powerfully to anyone who has tried to support an elderly relative - in poor and failing health.
Turns out William Butler Yeats was a famous Irish wordsmith - with a colourful history and fascinating life - so it just goes to show what I know about anything.
But isn't it wonderful that down the years WB Yeats inspired the Coen brothers - with his opening line about - No Country for Old Men
Sailing To Byzantium
I
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees
—Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
II
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
III
O sages standing in God’s holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
IV
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
First time I've ever read it - but the power of the words stopped me in my tracks - like a fierce blow to the stomach.
Especially the following lines:
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick,
Not cruel or gratuitous - to my mind anyway - just raw, emotional and honest - and it speaks powerfully to anyone who has tried to support an elderly relative - in poor and failing health.
Turns out William Butler Yeats was a famous Irish wordsmith - with a colourful history and fascinating life - so it just goes to show what I know about anything.
But isn't it wonderful that down the years WB Yeats inspired the Coen brothers - with his opening line about - No Country for Old Men
Sailing To Byzantium
I
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees
—Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
II
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
III
O sages standing in God’s holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
IV
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
