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Sailing To Byzantium
“Sailing to Byzantium”, by William Butler Yeats, is a poem first published in the collection ''October Blast'' (1927) and then republished in the in collection '' The Tower'' (1928); Yeats dedicated “Sailing to Byzantium” to the artist Norah McGuinness. “Sailing to Byzantium” is a poem in four stanzas of ottava rima, each composed of eight lines of iambic pentameter to narrate a journey to the city of Byzantium (Constantinople). In the poem, Yeats muses about the convergence of immortality, art, and the human spirit and describes the metaphorical journey of a man pursuing his own vision of eternal life and 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 t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th century in literature, 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with John Millington Synge and Augusta, Lady Gregory, Lady Gregory founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. He was awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature, and later served two terms as a Seanad Éireann (Irish Free State), Senator of the Irish Free State. A Protestant of Anglo-Irish descent, Yeats was born in Sandymount, Ireland. His father practised law and was a successful portrait painter. He was educated in Dublin and London and spent his childhood holidays in County Sligo. He studied poetry from an early age, when he became fascinated by Irish mythology, Irish legends and the occult. While in London he became part of the Irish literary revi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Crowe Ransom
John Crowe Ransom (April 30, 1888 – July 3, 1974) was an American educator, scholar, literary critic, poet, essayist and editor. He is considered to be a founder of the New Criticism school of literary criticism. As a faculty member at Kenyon College, he was the first editor of the widely regarded ''Kenyon Review''. Highly respected as a teacher and mentor to a generation of accomplished students, he also was a prize-winning poet and essayist. He was nominated for the 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature. Background John Crowe Ransom was born on April 30, 1888, in Pulaski, Tennessee. His father, John James Ransom (1853–1934) was a Methodist minister. His mother was Sara Ella (Crowe) Ransom (1859–1947). He had two sisters, Annie Phillips and Ella Irene, and one brother, Richard. He grew up in Spring Hill, Franklin, Springfield, and Nashville, Tennessee. He was home schooled until age ten. From 1899 to 1903, he attended the Bowen School, a public school whose headmaster was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Silverberg
Robert Silverberg (born January 15, 1935) is a prolific American science fiction author and editor. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo Award, Hugo and Nebula Awards, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and a SFWA Grand Master, Grand Master of SF since 2004. Especially noted Silverberg works include the novella ''Nightwings (novella), Nightwings'' (1969) and the novels ''Downward to the Earth'' (1970), ''The World Inside'' (1971), ''Dying Inside'' (1972), and ''Lord Valentine's Castle'' (1980; the first of the Majipoor series). Silverberg has attended every Hugo Award ceremony since the inaugural event in 1953. Biography Early life Silverberg was born on January 15, 1935, to Jew, 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 ... [...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 novella takes its name from the poem "" 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[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julia O'Faolain
Julia O'Faolain (6 June 1932 – 27 October 2020) was an Irish novelist and short story writer. Early life and education O'Faolain's parents were Irish writers Seán Ó Faoláin and Eileen Gould. 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. Writing career Her novels include *''Godded and Codded'' (1970) *'' Women In The Wall'' (1973) *''No Country for Young Men'' (1980) *''The Obedient Wife'' (1982) *''The Irish Signorina'' (1984) *''The Judas Cloth'' (1992) *''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''. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seán Ó Faoláin
Seán Proinsias Ó Faoláin (27 February 1900 – 20 April 1991) was one of the most influential figures in 20th-century Irish culture. A short-story writer of international repute, he was also a leading commentator and critic. Biography Ó Faoláin was born as John Francis Whelan in Cork City, County Cork, Ireland. He was educated at the Presentation Brothers Secondary School in Cork. He came under the influence of Daniel Corkery, joining the Cork Dramatic Society, and increasing his knowledge of the Irish language, which he had begun in school. Shortly after entering University College, Cork, he joined the Irish Volunteers. He fought in the Irish War of Independence. He supported the anti-treaty forces during the Irish Civil War, serving as Censor for the '' Cork Examiner'' and on publicity issues for the IRA. After the Republican loss, he received M.A. degrees from the National University of Ireland and from Harvard University where he studied for three years. He was a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
No Country For Old Men
''No Country for Old Men'' is a 2007 American neo-Western crime thriller film written, directed, produced and edited by Joel and Ethan Coen, based on Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel. Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin, the film is set in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas. The film revisits the themes of fate, conscience, and circumstance that the Coen brothers had explored in the films '' Blood Simple'' (1984), '' Raising Arizona'' (1987), and '' Fargo'' (1996). The film follows three main characters: Llewelyn Moss (Brolin), a Vietnam War veteran and welder who stumbles upon a large sum of money in the desert; Anton Chigurh (Bardem), a hitman who is sent to recover the money; and Ed Tom Bell (Jones), a sheriff investigating the crime. The film also stars Kelly Macdonald as Moss's wife, Carla Jean, and Woody Harrelson as Carson Wells, a bounty hunter seeking Moss and the return of the money, $2 million. ''No Country for Old Men'' premiered in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr.; July 20, 1933 – June 13, 2023) was an American author who wrote twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays, and three short stories, spanning the Western, post-apocalyptic, and Southern Gothic genres. His works often include graphic depictions of violence, and his writing style is characterised by a sparse use of punctuation and attribution. He is widely regarded as one of the great American novelists. McCarthy was born in Providence, Rhode Island, although he was raised primarily in Tennessee. In 1951, he enrolled in the University of Tennessee, but dropped out to join the U.S. Air Force. His debut novel, '' The Orchard Keeper'', was published in 1965. Awarded literary grants, McCarthy was able to travel to southern Europe, where he wrote his second novel, '' Outer Dark'' (1968). '' Suttree'' (1979), like his other early novels, received generally positive reviews, but was not a commercial success. A MacArthur Fellowship ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
No Country For Old Men (novel)
''No Country for Old Men'' is a 2005 novel by American author Cormac McCarthy, who had originally written the story as a screenplay. The story occurs in the vicinity of the Mexico–United States border in 1980 and concerns an illegal drug deal gone wrong in the Texas desert back country. Owing to its origins as a screenplay, the novel has a simple writing style that differs from McCarthy's earlier novels. The book was adapted into a 2007 Coen brothers film of the same name, which won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Title The title of the novel comes from the first line of the 1926 poem " Sailing to Byzantium" by W. B. Yeats. Plot The plot follows the paths of the three characters set in motion by events related to a drug deal gone bad near the Mexican–American border in Terrell County in Texas. Llewelyn Moss stumbles across the aftermath of a drug deal gone awry that has left all but one dead. That man, barely alive, asks for water. Moss responds that ... [...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 fe ... [...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 short story collection '' Goodbye, Columbus'', which won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.Brauner (2005), pp. 43–47 Ten years later, he published the bestseller '' Portnoy's Complaint''. Nathan Zuckerman, Roth's literary alter ego, narrates several of his books. A fictionalized Roth narrates some of his others, such as the alternate history '' The Plot Against America''. Roth was one of the most honored American writers of his generation. He received the National Book Critics Circle award for '' The Counterlife,'' the PEN/Fau ... [...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 the Sarantine Empire, 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
