Passage 068 · 1928
"Sailing to Byzantium"
Main effectThrough negation, enjambment, and parenthetical interruption, Yeats creates syntax of alienation. Form performs exclusion—syntax that denies belonging while observing beauty from outside.
Device index
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Tropes
Statement through denial.
Interrupting comment.
Contrasting elements placed together.
No words highlightedSyntax
"That is no country"—demonstrative pronoun points to previously mentioned or understood place. Syntax assumes shared reference.
"is no country for"—uses negative construction with preposition "for" indicating unsuitability. Not "old men cannot live there" but "no country FOR old men"—syntax emphasizes incompatibility.
"The young / In one another's arms"—line break separates subject from prepositional phrase, creating pause that emphasizes "young."
"birds in the trees"—noun phrase in apposition to "young," equating humans and nature.
"—Those dying generations—"—em-dashes create syntactic interruption. The observation about mortality breaks into the scene of vitality.
Close reading
1Close Reading
Demonstrative Opening
"That is no country"—demonstrative pronoun points to previously mentioned or understood place. Syntax assumes shared reference.
Negative Copula
"is no country for"—uses negative construction with preposition "for" indicating unsuitability. Not "old men cannot live there" but "no country FOR old men"—syntax emphasizes incompatibility.
Enjambment
"The young / In one another's arms"—line break separates subject from prepositional phrase, creating pause that emphasizes "young."
Appositive Fragment
"birds in the trees"—noun phrase in apposition to "young," equating humans and nature.
Dashes Creating Interruption
"—Those dying generations—"—em-dashes create syntactic interruption. The observation about mortality breaks into the scene of vitality.
Stylistic Effect
Through negation, enjambment, and parenthetical interruption, Yeats creates syntax of alienation. Form performs exclusion—syntax that denies belonging while observing beauty from outside.