Paper Summary:

This paper explores how the images generally associated with Romanticism, especially highly emotional imagery, are common to two of the most commonly anthologized of William Butler Yeats' poems, "The Second Coming" and "Sailing to Byzantium," both taken for the purposes of this essay from the Norton Anthology.

From the Paper:

"Romanticism is widely defined as an eighteenth and nineteenth century movement (Brians; Melani; Norton Anthology 1363-84). However, much of William Butler Yeats' poetry is highly romantic. This is illustrated in two of Yeats' major poems, "The Second Coming" and "Sailing to Byzantium." A hallmark of romanticism is emotion at the limits of rationality (Brians; Melani). "The Second Coming" is full of emotional images of the exotic, the horrible, and the religious. The poem begins with one of Yeats' favorite personal images, the "gyre." In a note to the poem, Yeats explained:..."

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