[footnote]In A Vision<\/i>, the book wherein he outlines his personal philosophy, Yeats identified sixth-century Byzantium (present-day Istanbul in Turkey) as his idea of Utopia. The unity of purpose among citizens from all walks of life to create a city that revealed their reverence for art, poetry, music, and architecture was, for Yeats, a model all nations, especially Ireland, should follow.[\/footnote]\n\nI\n\nThat[footnote]Ireland.[\/footnote]\u00a0is no country for old men.\u00a0 The young\nIn one another's arms, birds in the trees\n\u2014 Those dying generations \u2014 at their song,\nThe salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,\nFish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long\nWhatever is begotten, born, and dies.\nCaught in that sensual music all neglect\nMonuments of unageing intellect.\n\nII\n\nAn aged man is but a paltry thing,\nA tattered coat upon a stick, unless\nSoul clap its hands and sing,[footnote]One of Yeats\u2019s favourite poets was William Blake (1757-1827), who claimed he saw the soul of a brother who had just died, rise out of his body and ascend to heaven, clapping its hands for joy as it did so.\u00a0Here Yeats says old age is \u201ca paltry thing\u201d unless we can renew our spirit.[\/footnote]\u00a0and louder sing\nFor every tatter in its mortal dress,\nNor is there singing school but studying\nMonuments of its own magnificence;\nAnd therefore I have sailed the seas and come\nTo the holy city of Byzantium.\n\nIII\n\nO sages standing in God's holy fire\nAs in the gold mosaic of a wall,\nCome from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,[footnote]To \u201cperne\u201d means to spin; the gyre is the ever-widening spiral, Yeats's favourite symbol of the progress of life and civilization.\u00a0The \u201csages\u201d on the Byzantium mosaics approach the poet in this manner to symbolize his spiritual rebirth.[\/footnote]\nAnd be the singing-masters of my soul.\nConsume my heart away; sick with desire\nAnd fastened to a dying animal\nIt knows not what it is; and gather me\nInto the artifice of eternity.\n\nIV\nOnce out Of nature I shall never take\nMy bodily form from any natural thing,\nBut such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make\nOf hammered gold and gold enamelling[footnote]In Yeats\u2019s own note to this poem, he references the golden mechanical birds which sat in a tree in the emperor\u2019s palace in Byzantium and sang.\u00a0Yeats wants to be reincarnated as one of these birds, to end the cycle of birth and rebirth, once he is \u201cOut of nature.\u201d\u00a0 The singing echoes his own profession as a poet.[\/footnote]\nTo keep a drowsy Emperor awake;\nOr set upon a golden bough to sing\nTo lords and ladies of Byzantium\nOf what is past, or passing, or to come.\n\n\u2014<\/b>\u00a01928<\/p>","rendered":"
[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n I<\/p>\n That[2]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0is no country for old men.\u00a0 The young II<\/p>\n An aged man is but a paltry thing, III<\/p>\n O sages standing in God’s holy fire IV \u2014<\/b>\u00a01928<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t
\nIn one another’s arms, birds in the trees
\n\u2014 Those dying generations \u2014 at their song,
\nThe salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
\nFish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
\nWhatever is begotten, born, and dies.
\nCaught in that sensual music all neglect
\nMonuments of unageing intellect.<\/p>\n
\nA tattered coat upon a stick, unless
\nSoul clap its hands and sing,[3]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0and louder sing
\nFor every tatter in its mortal dress,
\nNor is there singing school but studying
\nMonuments of its own magnificence;
\nAnd therefore I have sailed the seas and come
\nTo the holy city of Byzantium.<\/p>\n
\nAs in the gold mosaic of a wall,
\nCome from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,[4]<\/sup><\/a>
\nAnd be the singing-masters of my soul.
\nConsume my heart away; sick with desire
\nAnd fastened to a dying animal
\nIt knows not what it is; and gather me
\nInto the artifice of eternity.<\/p>\n
\nOnce out Of nature I shall never take
\nMy bodily form from any natural thing,
\nBut such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
\nOf hammered gold and gold enamelling[5]<\/sup><\/a>
\nTo keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
\nOr set upon a golden bough to sing
\nTo lords and ladies of Byzantium
\nOf what is past, or passing, or to come.<\/p>\nCandela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t