Summary Of Sailing To Byzantium And The Wild Swans At Coole

The poems, “Sailing to Byzantium” and “The Wild Swans at Coole” by William Yeats both reveal that Yeats has difficulty coming to terms with ageing but do so in a different manner in each poem. In “Sailing to Byzantium”, Yeats insinuates that death is everywhere and frames an artificial world to escape the realm of death. In the poem “The Wild Swans at Coole", Yeats laments on how dispirited his life has become. Both poems, however, reflect important lessons about the passage of time and the cycle of life. Both the mood and tone in the two poems are critical to understanding how Yeats confronts the belief that his life has become unworthy. “The Wild Swans at Coole" begins with the stanza reflecting Yeats’ careful observations of nature. The poem begins with the line,

We get the first glimpse that Yeats is appreciative of nature. Yeats uses words like “still” (Yeats 4) and “twilight” (3) to instil the sense that he is experiencing an uninspiring phase in his life. These words set a somber tone to the poem. The quiet and melancholic setting parallels how Yeats feels about living as an ageing man. Much like the muted setting, life as an older person is quiet as the excitement and passion that young people experience both dissipate. Likewise, in “Sailing to Byzantium”, Yeats establishes the same harsh truth about his life but conveys it in a more contemptuous manner as opposed to a somber tone. He abruptly begins with the line in a critical tone, “That is no country for old men” (I, 1) to convey that he feels no longer welcomed in his home country of Ireland, which he disparagingly refers to as “That” (I, 1). Yeats portrays his life reaching a late stage of the cycle with, “Whatever