Poetry

English 3325: Modern Poetry
Prof. Leonardo Flores
Spring 2010 Midterm Exam
 
Name:________________________                                   March 19, 2010
 
Instructions: Write a concise responsefor each question, making sure you address it thoroughly. Print out and turn in your responses on Wednesday, March 24, 2009. (40 points)
 
Byzantium
THE unpurged images of day recede;
The Emperor'sdrunken soldiery are abed;
Night resonance recedes, night walkers' song
After great cathedral gong;
A starlit or a moonlit dome disdains
All that man is,
All mere complexities,
The fury and themire of human veins. 

Before me floats an image, man or shade,
Shade more than man, more image than a shade;
For Hades' bobbin bound in mummy-cloth
May unwind the winding path;
A mouth that has nomoisture and no breath
Breathless mouths may summon;
I hail the superhuman;
I call it death-in-life and life-in-death. 

Miracle, bird or golden handiwork,
More miraclc than bird or handiwork,Planted on the star-lit golden bough,
Can like the cocks of Hades crow,
Or, by the moon embittered, scorn aloud
In glory of changeless metal
Common bird or petal
And all complexities of mire orblood. 

At midnight on the Emperor's pavement flit
Flames that no faggot feeds, nor steel has lit,
Nor storm disturbs, flames begotten of flame,
Where blood-begotten spirits come
And all complexitiesof fury leave,
Dying into a dance,
An agony of trance,
An agony of flame that cannot singe a sleeve. 

Astraddle on the dolphin's mire and blood,
Spirit after Spirit! The smithies break theflood.
The golden smithies of the Emperor!
Marbles of the dancing floor
Break bitter furies of complexity,
Those images that yet
Fresh images beget,
That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea.William Butler Yeats, 1930
 
1. Analyze the use and effect of allusion and symbolism in Byzantium. Your discussion must be informed by a clearly stated interpretation of the poem. Note: the textbook has...