William Butler Yeats And A Portrait Of The Artist As A...

Sailing to Byzantium by William Butler Yeats and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce both follow the lives of a character that struggles to fit into society and because of this apparent disconnection between themselves and the rest of the culture and society they come from they are ostracized and distance themselves from the regular norms and values of society. The motive for both main characters to exile themselves and separate from the rest of society is apparent in their distaste for the materialistic and loves for art. They use art as an instrument to better themselves and gain deeper understanding about the meaning of life. In Yeats’ poem Sailing to Byzantium the narrator leaves his home country of Dodge on a sailing journey to the country Byzantium, which is near by in proximity to his home country but very different in its societal beliefs and norms because it is considered a holy city. The narrator describes Dodge as a place where the young and beaut iful can strive and live happily, but once that beauty begins to fade with age it turns into a very different place. His discontent with the country and people who represent these shallow views is apparent from different lines of dialogue from the narrator and he heads to Byzantium to find more meaning and happiness in life. The narrator decides that Dodge is a place for shallow people because they embrace only the newest trends and whatever is pretty or aesthetically pleasing. The people of Dodge haveShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Life of William Butler Yeats945 Words   |  4 PagesWilliam Butler Yeats is a famous Irish poet, yet as a student he did not do so well in his Math and English course. During his education, it was known that he did remarkably poor in mathematics and language as student. Is that surprising that a well-known poet, such as William, to be a poet if he did not do well in language? 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