An examination of Joseph and Yeats

To explicate poetry one must read and reread; investigate sounds as well as symbols, pay close attention to shape and architecture and to what is both written and implied. Formal poetry is a special language; it is a discourse of essence. Of the two poems elevated, one is much more deserving of a second reading.

In “Warning,” Jenny Joseph shares a heartening look at growing old. While society may have found this particular piece of poetry endearing enough to vote it a favorite in 1996, the popularity the poem has enjoyed is based on sentimentality. The piece does have a whimsical tone, however, which helps to attract the commercial masses. Indeed, it has been used as verse for gre

“Sailing to Byzantium” is poetry that can be read many times. The rhyme and meter has a natural assertiveness that is dynamic and inviting, encouraging its reader to reflect and grow each time.

He allows his frustration to be evident in the lines “Consume my heart away; sick with desire and fastened to a dying animal.” The disillusionment he feels can only be relieved by a “heaven” which is symbolized by Byzantium. To him, Byzantium is a representation of unity of spiritual and everyday life and the serenity he desires.

Conveying his own mortality he states his belief that this world is “no country for old men”; that society regards the old as “paltry.” The images he uses, such as the “salmon-falls,” emphasize and illuminate this realization.

He imagines that in Byza

Some topics in this essay:
Jenny Joseph, Byzantium Byzantium, Butler Yeats, Robert Frost, , expresses desire, “sailing byzantium”, poetry read,