One of the most famous of these was Peg Powler (a dubious namesake, to say the least), a close relative of Jenny Greenteeth, known as a "Lorelei with green tresses." for a group? I. was another movie I loved, with its ballet version of A clip discussing Yeats, faeries, and Irish occult tradition. Yeats: The Tower, W.B. Youve successfully purchased a group discount. Fintan OToole has proposed the Yeats Test. In "The Second Coming," the end of the Christian era is thought to be at hand. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Get ready to ace your Yeatss Poetry paper with our suggested essay topics, helpful essays about historical and literary context, a sample A+ student essay, and more. Similar divine or semidivine beings appear in ancient mythologies (e.g., the Chaldean sea god Ea, or Oannes). Yeats: The Tower. A Man Young And Old 3 The Mermaid - poem by William Butler Yeats | PoetryVerse William Butler Yeats A Man Young And Old: 3. Analysis Of The Village Of The Mermaids man walking away from the viewer and on the other side of the wall there are mermaids. Endure your life and ask for no longer. W. B. Yeats - 1865-1939 Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Yeats: The Tower, Introduction to Poems of W.B. $18.74/subscription + tax, Save 25% 1Turning and turning in the widening gyre. This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Sponsor Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. One disadvantage is watching one's friends go mad, but the speaker is still able to laugh (albeit not maliciously) at their expense. 2023. Quick fast explanatory summary. ); the hair of her sisters sold for a knife to murder the Prince (his throat cut, in some versions, while in others his heart is cut out); and finally, the Little Mermaid's tail is symbolically cut off, replaced with legs which allow her to walk, if painfully. It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. Yeats's Voice We know that time has passed because the speaker has repeatedly been denied by his lover (hence the thirst and the empty cup). By 1963, the aphoristic couplet about the best and the worst was enough of a cliche to irritate the critic Raymond Williams. The speaker finds a cup that is dry and becomes crazy, unable to sleep. William Butler Yeats, The way the content is organized. 14A shape with lion body and the head of a man, 16Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it. Written in 1919 and published in 1920, The Second Coming has become perhaps the most plundered poem in the English language. One thing that confounds my love of the English painter Waterhouse is that he uses the same model for so many of his paintings, from his famous The Mermaid, to La Belle Dame Sans Merci, to Circe, to Ophelia. I have written of the same thing again & again since. Alas! Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. His thematic focus could be sweepingly grand: in the 1920s As for the Matter of Britain, it seems to begin and end with water. Yeats is the greatest poet in the history of Ireland and Women care now as much for the speaker as they do for the braying of a donkey. You'll be billed after your free trial ends. The bride is carried through the celebrating street to the grooms room. The Village of The mermaids' is confusing for many reasons. The young man begins with wild hope, the form of the poem in a childlike AABACA rhyme scheme (some of the rhymes being loose). The Mermaid Analysis William Butler Yeats itunes audio book mp4 mp3 mit ocw Online Education homework forum help. Traditionally, hair cutting induces impotence. The speaker still wants passion in his life. The 70-year-old Yeats was a Nobel prize-winning poet of immense stature and . Yeatss The one story from this collection which still haunts me was about a mermaid captured by a fisherman, who imprisons her in his barn, and won't give her any water. I summon to the winding ancient stair; Set all your mind upon the steep ascent, Upon the broken, crumbling battlement, Upon the breathless starlit air, Upon the star that marks the hidden pole; Continue to start your free trial. - All Poetry Write Groups Contests Publish Store A Man Young And Old: III. Yes it is. One reason for the poems booming popularity was its supporting role in two influential masterpieces. The speaker starts by describing the storm that rages outside while he watches his daughter sleep in her cradle, beneath her blanket. Mesoamerican cultures, including the Aztecs, harvested it up until Spanish . Shortly before running for president in 1968, Robert F Kennedy warned: Indeed, we seem to fulfil the vision of Yeats. In 1979, Labour grandee Roy Jenkins quoted it at the climax of his celebrated Dimbleby lecture about the radical centre, a speech that paved the way for the launch of the SDP. I say the second bests a gay goodnight and quickly turn away., This elongated poem is enacts the loss of vitality that is its theme (and the theme of many other poems in this collection). Track breaking The-Little-Mermaid headlines & analysis on Hrriyet Daily News. Just as beautiful women often squander all the abundance they have been given, women with strong opinions do the same. That memory can divide families, cause death or despair, as wandering beggars know. "The Second Coming" is one of W.B. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. How could I praise that one? Crucial to The Second Coming was the symbol of the gyre (a cone or spiral) and Yeatss conviction that history moved in 2,000-year cycles. n April 1936, three years before his death. On 21 January, the revolutionary Irish parliament met in Dublin to declare independence while, in a quarry in Tipperary, members of the IRA killed two officers of the Royal Irish Constabulary. The speaker laughs because one cry is love, and the other pride. The poem's title is intended, first, to bring to mind the Second Coming of Christ. The poem's first stanza describes a world of chaos, confusion, and pain. After Achebe and Didion, lines from the poem popped up with growing frequency in coverage of China, India, Africa, Indonesia, Northern Ireland and Britain. Michael Dames, Yeats's Vision Many cultures tell of beings that are half human, half sea creature, most notably the selkies (or sealchies) of Ireland and Scotland. If I were alone I would cry like a peacock or sing a stone a lullaby, for that is natural for one who lives only in memory. The World at Sea and The World of Land are too different. The Second Coming! The Mermaid" Poetry.com. I like it . Renew your subscription to regain access to all of our exclusive, ad-free study tools. (read the full definition & explanation with examples). Copyright 1999 - 2023 GradeSaver LLC. writers ever to have lived. If their caps are stolen, they can no longer sing. Continue to start your free trial. The best that old age has to offer is a sort of nostalgia and a lessening of the type of pain described earlier in the poem. By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) 'The Little Mermaid' (1837) is one of the most layered and fascinating fairy tales written by Hans Christian Andersen. If we have inadvertently included a copyrighted poem that the copyright holder does not wish to be displayed, we will take the poem down within 48 hours upon notification by the owner or the owner's legal representative (please use the contact form at http://www.poetrynook.com/contact or email "admin [at] poetrynook [dot] com"). Instead of the symmetry of four stanzas, there are but three. He is distraught, and observes the death of the hare. The way in which the mythic elements of the mermaid's existence have developed over the centuries has always fascinated me. While many poems in Yeatss corpus have contributed indelible lines to the storehouse of the cultural imagination (no country for old men; the foul rag and bone shop of the heart), The Second Coming consists of almost nothing but such lines. The moon tells her what she dared not think when the thoughts were too powerful, enough to drown an old lover. A Man Young And Old: III. Even do, miracles happen sometimes! The speaker, an old man, leaves behind the country of the young for a visionary . By 1971, the Guardian observed, the title had become an African catchphrase. on 2-49 accounts, Save 30% Yeats: The Tower, Poems of W.B. morgan, respectively. RECOMMENDED READING Auden. Background & Life. If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. The taboos surrounding sex between humans and animals are just too deeply ingrained for the mermaid to remain a mere mammal in the eyes (and hearts) of those men compelled to make love to her. When one is crazed with thirst and finds a cup, one is almost afraid to drink, to die of happiness. She cannot speak, yet sings beautifully. The mermaid drags a swimming boy down to be her lover, forgetting, in her happiness, that he will drown. The Collected Poems of W.B. ); the Circean songs that ride the dark waves; the siren's conjuring that draws the lonely and confused, who listen, spellbound, on the hostile shore, at the edge of a forgiving, entreating sea. Want 100 or more? The infatuated Aengus wanders the earth in pursuit of this girl, growing old but never giving up his search. He wants to feel young inside rather that than old. It is instead a "manifold illusion." It is an imaginary experience had in tandem throughout human existence. To gather the full meaning of 'When You Are Old', a reader must understand the love life of Yeats. But more significant in what would become, perhaps, a lifelong relationship with this half-woman, half-fish archetype was a book of stories I found at the local library. by A.S. Byatt contains a beautiful and haunting metaphorical (and actual) version of this story, as imagined by a Victorian poet. New Yorker Summer And Spring, A Man Young And Old: 9. There are numerous accounts from sailors about mermaid sightings, if no concrete proof. Renews March 11, 2023 This theme is echoed in dozens of tales about mermaids from different cultures. Yeats: The Tower Bibliography, View the lesson plan for Poems of W.B. Yeats himself was not exactly SDP material. Because of a curse placed upon her mother, Melusine is born to be half woman, half fish, but only on Saturday. Ouch. SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The speaker only has a few lines to convey that core emotions like lust and rage need not be pejorative. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Picked him for her own, At 164 words, it is short and memorable enough to be famous in toto but it has also been disassembled into its constituent parts by books, albums, movies, TV shows, comic books, computer games, political speeches and newspaper editorials. His integrity and passionate commitment to work according The lines are regularly used as rhetorical tactics in the defence of anybodys sanity against anybody elses enthusiasm, he complained. It was a science fiction based on some real events and scientific theory, which debunked Mermaids. In order to subjugate a mermaid, you must take away some repository of her power, and most often, it is her hair. for a group? Instant downloads of all 1699 LitChart PDFs However, in his greatest poems, he mitigates this grandiosity with This was a bitter rejection for Yeats, whose heart was set on her. Although, like the moon, she was murderously beautiful, in the beginning she seemed like a real human being. the age of science, progress, democracy, and modernization, and his There are Mermaid Love Stories. A clip discussing Yeats, faeries, and Irish occult tradition. Dreams Underfoot, (New York, NY: Tom Doherty Assoc. Several of these have connections to Arthurian legend, but it is his portrayal of the mermaid which is somehow more magical than any other heroine he has painted from the annals of myth. But surely the two emotions are entangled. His early writing follows the conventions of romantic verse, utilizing familiar rhyme schemes . The Question and Answer section for Poems of W.B. The PDFs of modern translations of every Shakespeare play and poem. Poems of W.B. In Welsh legend, the If you liked this Yeats Mermaid Poem you may also like My PoemThe Sirens Call and my Rhyming CoupletDeadly Siren Song, You can also check out my SEA POETRY section with Sea Poems I wrote, You may also like William Butler Yeats and The Poetry of Fairies, Such a sad poem. A lot of money has been made from inspiring ecstasy at the contemplation of ruin. The Erotic World of Faery, (Australia: Cardinal Books, 1972; Sphere Reprint, 1989). Thats why it is a poem for 1919 and 1939 and 1968 and 1979 and 2001 and 2016 and today and tomorrow. During her pregnancy, his young wife Georgie Hyde-Lees had been stricken by the Spanish flu that was burning through Europe. The love between a Mermaid and a Mortal Man can rarely be a smooth one. Katherine Briggs, The speakers voice is jagged from laughter, not time, and when the moon is full he laughs. (one code per order). Surely the Second Coming is at hand. More books than SparkNotes. And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, View all Not all mythical sea beings possess such weaknesses, however. Yeats," it's a fair bet that Auden is describing Yeats's death here . portrays the magical island as shrouded in mist, accessible only across a formidable lake. With its distinct imagery and vivid description of society's collapse, "The Second Coming" is also one of Yeats's most quoted poems. The Secrets Of The Old, Crazy Jane Grown Old Looks At The Dancers, In Memory Of Eva Gore-Booth And Con Markiewicz, The Old Men Admiring Themselves In The Water, The Poet Pleads With The Elemental Powers, To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Nothing, To Be Carved On A Stone At Thoor Ballylee, Upon A House Shaken By The Land Agitation. Pressed her body to his body, Music, Travel, Poetry, Short Stories & Writing. The Mermaid A mermaid found a swimming lad, Picked him for her own, Pressed her body to his body, Laughed; and plunging down Forgot in cruel happiness That even lovers drown. This poem is addressed to her. Finding true love, and then losing it. She manages to find a husband who swears not to gaze upon her when she is locked in her bathing chamber. Owen Aherne and his Dancers Summary and Analysis. William Butler Yeats is a poet who was born in 1865 and died in 1939. -- William Butler Yeats. Free shipping for many products! STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Whether or not it is Yeatss greatest poem, it is by far his most useful. But after making her into a struggling actress in New York City, an alcoholic millionairess in a Hollywood penthouse, a boy-crazy teenager like my friend (she was four years older than me, and I wasn't digging this French-kissing thing), and various other Hardly are those words out Think of his two most famous works: William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) - 1939 (Menton) A mermaid found a swimming lad, Picked him for her own, Pressed her body to his body, Laughed; and plunging down. The Second Coming in Popular Culture Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans. The selkie is a seal and a woman, though not at the same time; she becomes a woman after coming on land and shedding her seal skin. An analysis of a short Yeats poem by Dr Oliver Tearle 'Death' is not perhaps numbered among the most famous poems by W. B. Yeats (1865-1939), but it is probably the shortest of all his finest poems. We're sorry, SparkNotes Plus isn't available in your country. The speaker has old secrets. A shape with lion body and the head of a man, They end up with blustering, difficult men. First Love Although, like the moon, she was murderously beautiful, in the beginning she seemed like a real human being. Oh of course yes. . The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. But Yeatss Wed love to have you back! In a story by Valerie Martin (author of Aging occurs during "The Empty Cup." Nimue, a young acolyte priestess, drowns herself when a love spell she creates rebounds back upon her. She comes down the lane with a stone wrapped up as if it were a child. The Mermaid by William Butler Yeats - Famous poems, famous poets. The famous circus owner sewed a decaying fish onto a monkey torso and tried to pass it off as a miraculous example of a mermaid corpse. Here's where you'll find analysis of the literary devices in Yeatss Poetry, from the major themes to motifs, symbols, and more. I have never been inordinately fond of water, the ocean, or swimming. The Lady of the Lake receives her divine power from her water element; Excalibur rises from the waves, forged of unearthly metal. Spiritus Mundi Subscribe now. In the final season of The Sopranos, reading the poem leads an anguished AJ Soprano to attempt suicide, prompting his mother to ask: What kind of poem is that to teach college students?!. 20% Yeats makes use of one long extended metaphor in 'A Coat.' It equates his own writing practice, meaning his process and the poems and essays he produced, to a coat. In this clip, Yeats reads one of his most famous poems in his distinctive tone. Yet it did not attain what Dwan calls its problematic ubiquity until some time after the second world war. And More later. By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy. Mythic Ireland, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1992). She was born on the solar cusp of Libra and Scorpio, with a Venus/Neptune conjunction in Scorpio, and her Eighth House in Libra. Renews March 11, 2023 Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! The legend of the selkie (the Orkney and Shetland version of the roane) is so ancient and so pervasive, however, that one must scratch one's chin in wonder at its origins. The old should be hidden from the rest, so that they will not see aged bodies. Forgot in cruel happiness The way the content is organized. There is a recent episode of "The X Files" that deals with the Fiji Mermaid, along with other assorted sideshow freaks -- quite the best episode I've seen all year. Did you know you can highlight text to take a note? But sometimes we simply sit there in the dark, stupefied by the spectacle. Contact us A website dedicated to exploring and understanding the heady text Yeats wrote about his view of the world. And what the movie is saying about Cher is as elusive as it is intriguing. (LogOut/ himself into art, but not in a merely confessional or autobiographical The second, longer stanza imagines the speaker receiving a vision of the future, but this vision replaces Jesus's heroic return with what seems to be the arrival of a grotesque beast. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss thenovel. Subscribe now. Dont have an account? Sometimes it can end up there. A Reading of the Poem Happily, the book had become no less magical to me. Since he did so, he cannot do a thing, because one must be lunatic to touch the moon. Offering the reader mayhem, terror, suspense and a mysterious nemesis, it is a kind of disaster movie for modern civilisation. encompass the breadth of his personal experience, as well as his You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. Peabody is obviously attracted to her, yet bumbles about, embarrassed by her potent sexuality. Yeats and the Supernatural mythology, Greek mythology, nineteenth-century occultism (which On television, shows including The West Wing, Battlestar Galactica and Babylon Five have riffed on The Second Coming. Laughed; and plunging down In April 1936, three years before his death, WB Yeats received a letter from the writer and activist Ethel Mannin. https://www.poetry.com/poem/39248/a-man-young-and-old:-iii.-the-mermaid, Enter our monthly contest for the chance to, Full analysis for A Man Young And Old: III. Picked him for her own, "Byzantium" is Irish poet W.B. SparkNotes PLUS In this complex, mysterious poem, the speaker's visions of the sacred city of Byzantium trace a "winding path" that leads from messy, emotional human life . Chinua Achebe enshrined Things Fall Apart in the vocabulary of African independence. On a Picture of a Black Centaur by Edmund Dulac, The Anglo-Irish War and the Irish Civil War, Read the Study Guide for Poems of W.B. Revelations no longer cause suicide or the sort of intense pain described in "Human Dignity." a focus on his own deep feeling. From the terrible beauty of Easter 1916 to the fractured moments of Leda and the Swan and The Second Coming always oxymoron, collision, rupture. Please wait while we process your payment. nations experience during one of its most troubled times. A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Yeats started his long literary career as a romantic poet and gradually evolved into a modernist poet. At this time, Yeats and his daughter were staying at Thoor Ballylee, a tower owned by Yeats's friend Lady Augusta Gregory. Poems of W.B. toilette The Mermaid by William Butler Yeats A mermaid found a swimming lad, Picked him for her own, Pressed her body to his body, Laughed; and plunging down Forgot in cruel happiness That even lovers drown. In 2007, after the Brookings Institute called its report on Iraq Things Fall Apart, the New York Times claimed: The Second Coming is fast becoming the official poem of the Iraq war. You could find similar claims being made regarding the financial crisis, the Arab spring and, now, the age of rightwing populism. century; his themes, images, symbols, metaphors, and poetic sensibilities Peter, who was an important man, thinks he is a peacock and cries. glaistig Yeats: The Tower literature essays are academic essays for citation. Both the man and the mermaids are miniscule due to the extended perspective of the painting. At once the quintessential fairy tale and a curious subversion of the fairy-tale form, 'The Little Mermaid' requires some careful analysis to unpick its various strands and meanings. An interesting article outlining the poem's quotability. All news, headlines, photos and videos on The-Little-Mermaid. That's right, the other kids went swimming when school let out -- I went to the library. cartoon in playful watercolor, other assorted art images tacked up in the bathroom, jewelry, books, even some original artwork. A website dedicated to exploring and understanding the heady text Yeats wrote about his view of the world. Early drafts of the poem illustrate Yeatss dedication to universalising his message, as he deletes specific references to the French Revolution and the first world war and replaces terrestrial images of judges and tyrants with figures from dreams and myths. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. Yeats: The Tower A Man Young and Old Summary and Analysis". As Auden wrote in In Memory of WB Yeats (1939), The words of a dead man / Are modified in the guts of the living., As the world is wrenched out of joint by the coronavirus pandemic, many people are turning to poetry for wisdom and consolation, but The Second Coming fulfils a different role, as it has done in crisis after crisis, from the Vietnam war to 9/11 to the election of Donald Trump: an opportunity to confront chaos and dread, rather than to escape it. Yeatss own experience is never Moreover, Anne was born in the midst of the Anglo-Irish war, lending a tumultuous background to the momentone . The video was titled ' Mermaid Sighting in Kiryat Yam ' and had a description saying: "Strange footage shot by a young boy shows him and his . Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle. Yeats, View our essays for Poems of W.B. Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. Analysis, Summary, overview, explanation, meaning, description, of A Man Young And Old: III. Rosalie K. Fry, Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership. The Irish name for a mermaid is The dynamic ambivalence of The Second Coming, mingling horror with excitement, explains its embrace by popular culture. The Second Coming was published in both The Nation and The Dial in November 1920 and then in Yeatss collection Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921). Mind and delighted mind; And one because her hand Had strength that could unbind What none can understand, What none can have and thrive, Youth's dreamy load, till she So changed me that I live Labouring in ecstasy. Now, I'm sure I'd be mildly nauseated by this film were I to watch it today, but at the time I was entranced. From these sessions, Yeats constructed an elaborate, world-explaining System, which he eventually laid out in bewildering detail in A Vision (1925). Just as dystopian authors get a kick out of dramatising their worst fears, great apocalyptic art has a dreadful vitality, its pulse quickening in proximity to catastrophe. Pressed her body to his body, It was written some sixteen or seventeen years ago & foretold what is happening. far from his poems, even when they seem obscurely imagistic or theoretically (Random House), 1989). This tale bears a resemblance to the many tales of mermaids who may be controlled through the theft of their combs, their mirrors, their musical instruments, or their cloaks or caps (which, in some tales, permit them to travel from island to island). Yeats felt that he no longer belonged in Ireland, as the young or the young in How does the very short poem, The Spur give more insight on how the poet wants to grow old? Chinua Achebe's acclaimed novel, Things Fall Apart, is set in the early 1890s, around the time of the European colonization of Africa. Other mythical sea creatures related to the mermaid also suffer seeming invisibility. Yeats's most famous poems. For the real people who already lived in Africa, this was a . You'll be billed after your free trial ends. Copyrighted poems are the property of the copyright holders. There are, of course, the more psychologically complex manifestations of the mermaid figure; namely Melusine and Morgan le Fay. his profound individuality, he remains one of the most universal the morning.) (the comb and mirror), results from wishful thinking or, if you like, embarrassment, on the parts of sailors and seamen who perpetuate these myths. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Joan Didions essay collection Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968) had a similar effect in the US at a time of stomach-churning flux. and 30s he even concocted Evident, too, in the drafts is Yeatss painstaking refinement of each line. When she smiled, it changed him such that he had no more thoughts than the stars when the moon comes out. First, Melusine: a very odd and touching story of a woman who is only able to marry if she retains a terrible secret. Yet this association, with . Ace your assignments with our guide to Yeatss Poetry! Mermaids. 20% She is less a house guest than a pet, it seemed to me. Dominic West (of The Wire fame) reads the poem. There's a Waterhouse, a Howard Pyle, an old The symbology of this story is intriguing. I celebrate death. Yeats dabbled in with Madame Blavatsky and the Society of the Golden The Mermaid, endlessly perched at the ocean's edge. his personal experience onto history by way of his art; and no poet It is interesting when reading the text to consider why Yeats chose a coat to represent his work. $18.74/subscription + tax, Save 25% The poem is built to last. And I remember being quite interested in the famous "Fiji Mermaid" hoax perpetuated by P.T. The Mermaid A mermaid found a swimming lad, Picked him for her own, Pressed her body to his body, Laughed; and plunging down Forgot in cruel happiness That even lovers drown. Maureen Duffy, in She crossed the speakers path and he thought she was flesh and blood until he touched her and found stone. GradeSaver, 21 January 2008 Web. Charles de Lint, "Our Lady of the Harbor," (LogOut/ By William Butler Yeats. Splash! Summary. Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry Fintan OToole has proposed the Yeats Test: The more quotable Yeats seems to commentators and politicians, the worse things are.. People weren't convinced for very long, but they were hoppin' mad when they found out they'd been duped. and Visions of crisis south Vietnamese flee Saigon in 1975. The Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies & Other Supernatural Creatures, (New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1978). Mini Essays . were "lake maidens" who married mortal men whom they chose. (one code per order). Get the entire guide to The Second Coming as a printable PDF. The only barriers to the wind outside, surging in from the Atlantic Ocean, are a hill and a woodland, which the speaker refers to as "Gregory's Wood." He has spent the past hour pacing and praying in a . You can view our. of her singing. Sailing to Byzantium: William Butler Yeats.