In many of William Butler Yeats's works, he creates a seemingly inescapable gyre or cycle that history and human lives follow. In The Second Coming, Yeats examines the cycle of history in which a new messiah arrives every two thousand years. In An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, Yeats explores the whirlwind in which man is caught, where his present state dies and becomes new again. In a broader sense, the poem emphasizes the inevitability of death. However, neither poem acknowledges the possibility of escape from the gyre. Yet, in his poem Sailing to Byzantium, Yeats recognizes a way out of the aforementioned whirlwind. Through the separation of the soul from the physical body, one can transcend time. Yeats uses the diction surrounding aging and the motifs of birds and the soul to show the insignificance of mortal life, revealing the soul's desire to endure beyond mortal life through art. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Sailing to Byzantium, Yeats uses the motif of birds to criticize man's tendency to focus on the present moment and forget the importance of the soul, a tendency that particularly affects young people . He describes a world with “young people in each other’s arms, birds in the trees”. This description shows the sexual nature of the "young people in each other's arms", captivated by their own senses and likens them to carefree birds. Young people use this sensuality to distract themselves from the cycle they are caught in, but their actions also demonstrate the continuation of the cycle. Young people are so distracted by the physical that they ignore their soul and their ability to separate themselves from their physical state. By condemning the actions of young people, the speaker implies that their youth and vitality are being wasted. Like the young, birds also represent the cycle. The birds sing as the little ones like, but soon they will be blindly overtaken by death because they are too distracted by their song. The speaker continues his observation that young people lack something greater, their intellect and purpose, when he states that "seas filled with mackerel, fish flesh or fowl" will breed all the time. 'summer. Just like man, animals and all natural things are in a cycle of birth and death of which they are not aware. This highlights the true insignificance of individuals, as all natural things will live and die. Furthermore, constant reproduction leads to change and renewal. What will last after the current cycle? The speaker responds to this when he desires to be “placed on a golden bough to sing” like a bird but with permanence beyond the current gyre. Gold and art created from gold resist death. Art is Yeats’s solution to escaping the inevitable cycle. The bird in the final stanza, represented by a being singing on the branch, is physically capable of transcending time. Yeats recognizes the whirlwind he is caught in when he explores the differences between the aging generation and the younger generation. It begins with “This is not a country for old men.” “It” refers to a changing world that no longer accepts traditional ideas. The speaker stands out from this new generation by recognizing that he can no longer live in a country designed for them. He continues with the idea of ​​a separation between the young and the old when he draws attention to the “dying generations.” The idea that generations die creates a cycle: as one dies, another is created.However, this cycle also shows that the young and the old are intrinsically linked; the younger generation will soon become the dying generation. The cycle continues with “Everything that is begotten, is born, dies” which highlights this continuous cycle. Unlike aging generations, new generations ignore the "monuments of non-aging intellect" and therefore do not respect the achievements and ideas of their predecessors. Older generations recognize the importance of knowledge and life beyond their death and seek to preserve their ideas with "monuments of an unaging intellect" and thus wish to pass these ideas on to younger generations. This idea refers to the title of the poem. Byzantium, once a great empire, no longer exists and its culture and ideals have disappeared. Even great civilizations face the same cycle as individuals. Like a declining empire, “an old man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat on a stick.” The old generation is insignificant and past its prime and hence cannot connect with the new generation and pass on their ideas. The birds in the first stanza represent the new generation and the ragged old man in this stanza is depicted as a scarecrow who repels the new generation and therefore cannot pass on his ideas to them. Old men celebrate “every shred in his mortal garb” while young people focus on the present moment and their sexuality, creating increased separation between the generations. The shreds represent the struggles encountered during life. The older generation has accumulated many shreds or lessons throughout their lives, unlike the younger generation. Older generations recognize the importance of celebrating the knowledge born from the pain of life and the value of the soul over the physical. Even with the recognition of the soul as a separate entity, the heart is "attached to a dying animal" and so the speaker must find a way to allow his soul to escape the physical and transcend into " the artifice of eternity. Unlike the body, the soul has the capacity to be eternal, but this eternity is established by the things it creates. Unlike the natural world, man-made objects are not trapped in the cycle and therefore can continue to survive even after their creators die. Yeats uses the motif of the soul to emphasize the speaker's desire to be reborn as something capable of transcending time. An old man is nothing but his body in tatters, "unless the soul claps its hands and sings." By personifying the soul, the speaker recognizes the distinction between the soul and the physical body. By allowing it to “clap its hands and sing,” the physical allows the soul to be more important. Without this separation, the soul is not able to “sing” and live from the past death. For Yeats, this song is poetry. The speaker gives the example of a group that has survived through time: the “wise men standing in the sacred fire of God As in the golden mosaic of a wall”. The wise men represent the frieze of the saints and wise men of Byzantium as depicted in the Old Testament. The fire alludes to the burning bush of the Book of Exodus. This bush is on fire, but never burns, representing transformation and removal of impurities. Therefore, the wise, who stand in this purifying fire, have been purified from sin and are able to be reborn because the impure physical being has been eliminated and the pure spiritual aspects of the soul remain. Burning sages appear in gold, the symbol of art, and are thus able to escape the gyre and transcend time. The speaker wants these wise men to teach him to “be the singing masters.