Yeats, Sailing To Byzantium

Question 1

What is the opening line?

Answer 1

‘That is no country for old men’

Question 2

‘Caught in…’

Answer 2

‘Caught in that sensual music’

1st. stanza

Question 3

‘Consume my…’

Answer 3

‘Consume my heart away; sick with desire’

Question 4

What does Yeats say the heart is ‘fastened’ to?

Answer 4

A dying animal

‘Fastened to a dying animal’

Question 5

‘Grecian goldsmiths make…’

Answer 5

‘Grecian goldsmiths make Of hammered gold and gold enamelling’

5th stanza

Question 6

What did Sir James Frazer write?

What line references his book?

Answer 6

A study in magic and religion

‘Set upon a golden bough’

The reference to Frazer’s book on magic is perhaps a suggestion that the speaker, or in fact Yeats himself, is attaching a mystical nature to his verse. This is perhaps an insight into Yeats psyche, as he was a proponent of the belief that words had a magical capacity which could connect the individual with a realm beyond the physical

Question 7

Summarise the poem

Answer 7

The speaker expresses his dissatisfaction with the physical world. He draws upon the fragility of the physical form and expresses his desire to transcend death and become apart of the ‘artifice of eternity’