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Sailing To Byzantium
"Sailing to Byzantium" is a poem by William Butler Yeats, first published in the 1928 collection '' The Tower''. It comprises four stanzas in ottava rima, each made up of eight lines of iambic pentameter. It uses a journey to Byzantium (Constantinople) as a metaphor for a spiritual journey. Yeats explores his thoughts and musings on how immortality, art, and the human spirit may converge. Through the use of various poetic techniques, Yeats's "Sailing to Byzantium" describes the metaphorical journey of a man pursuing his own vision of eternal life as well as his conception of paradise. Synopsis Written in 1926 (when Yeats was 60 or 61), "Sailing to Byzantium" is Yeats' definitive statement about the agony of old age and the imaginative and spiritual work required to remain a vital individual even when the heart is "fastened to a dying animal" (the body). Yeats's solution is to leave the country of the young and travel to Byzantium, where the sages in the city's famous gold mos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish literary establishment who helped to found the Abbey Theatre. In his later years he served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State. A Protestant of Anglo-Irish descent, Yeats was born in Sandymount and was educated in Dublin and London and spent childhood holidays in County Sligo. He studied poetry from an early age, when he became fascinated by Irish legends and the occult. These topics feature in the first phase of his work, lasting roughly from his student days at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin until the turn of the 20th century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. From ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cleanth Brooks
Cleanth Brooks ( ; October 16, 1906 – May 10, 1994) was an American literary critic and professor. He is best known for his contributions to New Criticism in the mid-20th century and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher education. His best-known works, '' The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry'' (1947) and ''Modern Poetry and the Tradition'' (1939), argue for the centrality of ambiguity and paradox as a way of understanding poetry. With his writing, Brooks helped to formulate formalist criticism, emphasizing "the interior life of a poem" (Leitch 2001) and codifying the principles of close reading. Brooks was also the preeminent critic of Southern literature, writing classic texts on William Faulkner, and co-founder of the influential journal '' The Southern Review'' (Leitch 2001) with Robert Penn Warren. Biographical information The early years On October 16, 1906, in Murray, Kentucky, Brooks was born to a Methodist minister, the Reve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Immortal Memory
''Immortal Memory'' is an album by Dead Can Dance member Lisa Gerrard and Irish classical composer Patrick Cassidy, released in 2004. It was Gerrard's first studio release since 1998's '' Duality'' with Pieter Bourke. Overview Gerrard first met Cassidy in 2000 in Los Angeles (where he lives), when she came to work on the ''Gladiator'' soundtrack, and they planned to work together one day. When they eventually found a shared two-month break, they joined at Gerrard's Australian studio for this record.''Prefix Magazine'' review, op. cit. The W. B. Yeats poem "Sailing to Byzantium" inspired the track of the same name. The lyrics utilise three ancient languages: * Gaelic (ancient Irish) in "The Song of Amergin" (based on the first song supposedly sung by a mortal on Irish soil). * Aramaic in "Maranatha" (meaning "come lord, come teacher"), and "Abwoon" (meaning "our father", a rendition of the "Lord's Prayer" in the language of Jesus). * Latin in "Psallit in Aure Dei" (mean ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick Cassidy (composer)
Patrick Cassidy (born 1956) is an Irish orchestral, choral, and film score composer. Cassidy was born in Claremorris, County Mayo, Ireland. He received a master's degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Limerick in 1985, and supported his early compositional activities with a day job as a statistician. He is best known for his narrative cantatas – works he has written for orchestra and choir based on Irish mythology. ''The Children of Lir'', released in September 1993, remained at number one in the Irish classical charts for a full year. It was the first cantata written in the Irish language since the work of Paul McSwiney in the late 1800s. The BBC later produced an hour long documentary on the piece. ''Famine Remembrance'', a commissioned piece to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine, was premiered in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1996. In June 2007, the piece was performed at the opening of Toronto's Ireland Park with the President o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lisa Gerrard
Lisa Germaine Gerrard (; born 12 April 1961) is an Australian musician, singer and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with music partner Brendan Perry. She is known for her unique singing style technique (glossolalia), influenced by her childhood spent in multicultural areas of Melbourne. She has a dramatic contralto voice and has a vocal range of three octaves. Born and raised in Melbourne, Gerrard played a pivotal role in the city's Little Band scene and fronted post-punk group Microfilm before co-founding Dead Can Dance in 1981. With Perry, she explored numerous traditional and modern styles, laying the foundations for what became known as neoclassical dark wave. She sings sometimes in English and often in a unique language that she invented. In addition to singing, she is an instrumentalist for much of her work, most prolifically using the yangqin (a Chinese hammered dulcimer). Gerrard's first solo album, '' The Mirror Pool'', was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sarantine Mosaic
''The Sarantine Mosaic'' is a historical fantasy duology by Canadian writer Guy Gavriel Kay, comprising ''Sailing to Sarantium'' (1998) and ''Lord of Emperors'' (2000). The titles of the novels allude to works by poet W. B. Yeats. The story's setting is based on the 6th-century Mediterranean world, and the looming conflict between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy that had replaced the Western Roman Empire. Varena, the capital of Batiara, alludes to Ravenna, the Ostrogothic capital, while Sarantium, the capital of Bataria, is inspired by Byzantium or Constantinople. The novels '' The Lions of Al-Rassan'', '' The Last Light of the Sun'', and '' A Brightness Long Ago'' also take place in that unnamed world, although in different settings. In the series the audience is also briefly acquainted with the character Ashar ibn Ashar, who is the creator of the Asharite religion seen in '' The Lions of Al-Rassan''. The seeds of change for the great empire base ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guy Gavriel Kay
Guy Gavriel Kay (born November 7, 1954) is a Canadian writer of fantasy fiction. The majority of his novels take place in fictional settings that resemble real places during real historical periods, such as Constantinople during the reign of Justinian I or Spain during the time of El Cid. Kay has expressed a preference to avoid genre categorization of these works as historical fantasy. , Kay has published 15 novels and a book of poetry. , his fiction has been translated into at least 22 languages. Kay is also a qualified lawyer in Canada. Biography Kay was born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, in 1954. He was raised and educated in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Manitoba in 1975. When Christopher Tolkien needed an assistant to edit his father J. R. R. Tolkien's unpublished work, he chose Kay, then a student of philosophy at the University of Manitoba, because of a family connection. Kay moved to Oxford in 1974 to assist Chris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Dying Animal
''The Dying Animal'' (2001) is a short novel by the US writer Philip Roth. It tells the story of senior literature professor David Kepesh, renowned for his literature-themed radio show. Kepesh is finally destroyed by his inability to comprehend emotional commitment. ''The Dying Animal'' is the third book in a series portraying the life of the fictional professor, preceded by ''The Breast'' (1972) and '' The Professor of Desire'' (1977). Plot summary Kepesh is fascinated by the beautiful young Consuela Castillo, a student in one of his courses. An erotic liaison is formed between the two; Kepesh becomes obsessively enamored of his lover's breasts, a fetish developed in the previous novels. Despite his fevered devotion to Consuela, the sexually promiscuous professor maintains a concurrent affair with a previous lover, now divorced. He is also reluctant to expose himself to the scrutiny or ridicule that might follow from an introduction to Consuela's family. It is implied that he fears ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophically and formally blurring the distinction between reality and fiction, for its "sensual, ingenious style" and for its provocative explorations of American identity. He first gained attention with the 1959 novella '' Goodbye, Columbus''; the collection so titled received the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.Brauner (2005), pp. 43–47 He became one of the most awarded American writers of his generation. His books twice received the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle award, and three times the PEN/Faulkner Award. He received a Pulitzer Prize for his 1997 novel '' American Pastoral'', which featured one of his best-known characters, Nathan Zuckerman. ''The Human Stain'' (2000), another Zuckerman novel, was awarded th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Silverberg
Robert Silverberg (born January 15, 1935) is an American author and editor, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo and Nebula Awards, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and a Grand Master of SF. He has attended every Hugo Awards ceremony since the inaugural event in 1953. Biography Early years Silverberg was born to Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York. A voracious reader since childhood, he began submitting stories to science fiction magazines during his early teenage years. He received a BA in English Literature from Columbia University, in 1956. While at Columbia, he wrote the juvenile novel '' Revolt on Alpha C'' (1955), published by Thomas Y. Crowell with the cover notice: "A gripping story of outer space". He won his first Hugo in 1956 as the "best new writer". That year Silverberg was the author or co-author of four of the six stories in the August issue of '' Fantastic'', breaking his record set in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sailing To Byzantium (novella)
"Sailing to Byzantium" is a novella by the American writer Robert Silverberg. It was first published in ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' in February 1985,Nebula Awards 1986 Science Fiction Awards database. Retrieved February 11, 2019. then in June 1985 with a book edition. The title is from the poem of the same name by . The story, like the poem, deals with immortality, and includes quotations from the poem. Story summary On 50th-century Earth, people live in recreations of historical cities. Currently the cities are |
Julia O'Faolain
Julia O'Faolain (6 June 1932 – 27 October 2020) was a London-born Irish novelist and short story writer. Her parents were Irish writers Seán Ó Faoláin and Eileen Gould. Biography She was educated at University College Dublin, Sapienza University of Rome and the Sorbonne Paris. She worked as a writer, language teacher, editor and translator and lived in France, Italy, and the United States. Her novels include ''Godded and Codded'' (1970), '' Women In The Wall'' (1975), ''No Country for Young Men'' (1980), ''The Obedient Wife'' (1982), ''The Irish Signorina'' (1984), ''The Judas Cloth'' (1992) and ''Adam Gould'' (2009). Her short story collections include ''We Might See Sights!'' (1968), ''Man in the Cellar'' (1974), ''Melancholy Baby'' (1978) and ''Daughters of Passion'' (1982). As Julia Martines, she translated ''Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence: The Diaries of Buonaccorso Pitti and Gregorio Dati'' and Piero Chiara's ''A Man of Parts''. Her ''No Country for Young Men'' was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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