Playing card games, reading novels, and keeping updated with current affairs are all actions my Great Grandmother of 96 years, does to keep her intellectual being in tact. Physically her body is old, but mentally, she is a very intelligent and prudent lady. This common trend with old people is seen in the poem, "Sailing to Byzantium", written by William Butler Yeats. Just like my grandmother, Yeats does not consider the body very essential but feels that the mind is the center of ones being and often wishes he might be free of his burdensome body.
Throughout the poem, Yeats utilizes many poetic devices to write quite constructively. The name, "Sailing to Byzantium", and rhythm, were premeditated to bestow a soothing yet lamenting tone of what the poem will relate to. …