Comment on the treatment of old age in
Yeats’s poetry with reference to the poems in your syllabus.
One of Yeats’ concerns in this
poetry was old age and its effect. Among other things, old age is seen as a
symbol of the tyranny of the time. At the same time rage against the
limitations of age and society that is put upon an old aged person keep
occurring again and again in his poetry.
In the poem, The Tower,
the poet’s reaction in his own physical infirmity wrought by time is revealed.
The poem is divided into three sections. In first section there is a fleeting cognizance,
and finally an acceptance of the inevitable physical degradation of old age,
and the poet expresses his desire to leave the pet lamb of fancy and remain
immersed in philosophical contemplation. The poem begins with a note of bitter
agony and desperation:
“What
shall I do with this absurdity?
O hearty o
troubled heart this caricature
Decrepit
age that has been tied to me.”
The Byzantium poems both attempt
to compensate for old age by moving away from the teeming world of biological
growth and change to a timeless world of art and intellect, a world of golden
artefacts. in Sailing to Byzantium, Yeats calls an old man:
“…a
paltry thing
And
tattered coat upon a stick”
