Essay Questions

How does this collection show a change in Yeats' writing style?

This collection marks a dramatic shift in Yeats' writing style. His earlier poems were heavily influenced by Romantic poetry, using more formal and exalted language. However, his later poetry reveals an influence from the Modernist movement, with a more colloquial style. After meeting with modernist poet Ezra Pound in 1909, there seems to be a shift in Yeats' poetry to a more Modernist style. However, he still uses traditional rhyme and stanza forms, unlike many other modernist poets.

How does Yeats explore the theme of age?

In many of Yeats' poems he discusses the theme of aging, and how he feels distant in the modern world. For example, in "Sailing to Byzantium" he writes:

"That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees."

However, he also offers some consolation, suggesting that age does not affect someone’s spiritual and intellectual abilities, and that an elderly person can still feel intense joy when they appreciate art:

"An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing."