The opposition of art and life and youth and old age in 'Sailing to Byzantium'.

 MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2021 - 2022

4. Comment on the opposition of art and life and youth and old age in 'Sailing to Byzantium'.

 

Ans. "Sailing to Byzantium, " first published in 1928 as part ofYeats's collection, The Tower, contains

only four stanzas and yet is considered to be one of the most effective expressions of Yeats's arcane poetic "system," exploring tensions between art and ordinary life and demonstrating how, through an imaginative alchemy, the raw materials of life can be formed into something enduring. In "Sailing to Byzantium," the speaker transforms himself into a work of art, and, in so doing, obscures the distinction between form and content and the artist and his work. "Sailing to Byzantium" is widely admired for its inventive, evocative imagery and masterfully interwoven phrases. Literary critic Frank Kermode calls the poem "a marvellously contrived emblem of what Yeats took the work of art to be.

For the complete answer and also the full set of answers of 1st and 2nd year MEG  assignments/study notes call or WhatsApp me : +91 99 471 471 85)