Yeats

The two readings this week - “Sailing to Byzantium” and “Among School Children” - have been my favorites of all the Yeats poems thus far.

How I understood “Sailing to Byzantium” I saw it as a man - the narrator - searching for somewhere he can reguvenate his imagination. As he currently views Ireland, it’s full of young lovers and it is “no country for old men” which he is. Byzantium, for him, is a place he can feel young - not physically but mentally. He seems tortured by the fact that he is physically growing old and cannot escape his body. Byzantium is as he sees it, his escape - his nirvana. Unfortunately, it only provides temporary escape, which I’m not sure he may understand, because eventually he will die. Byzantium also stands a connection with the spiritual world, in hopes that it will help him stay young mentally.

“Among School Children” is my favorite. Firstly, however, I was disturbed at the fact that: 1. A sixty-year-old man is walking through a school hall and 2. He’s connecting Leda (“Ledeaian body” with the school children. And I’ll explain.

From what I got from the poem was that he believes a school doesn’t teach children about life and what it truly means. It’s a place to learn, yes, but it doesn’t give a fulfilling meaning on why were here and the purpose of life. In the connection with Leda and the children, Yeats might be referring the children as being detached from their innocence - they aren’t being allowed to explore life and the meaning of it. Clearly, they aren’t being “raped” but something is being taken away from them. The children aren’t being exposed to the “real world” which Yeates believes can only be learned outside of the classroom. I think thats disgusting to use it as an analogy but whatever.

But what I really like about “Among School Children” is the overall message that a classroom and the “book learn’ “ isn’t life. Life is what we experience outside the classroom.