10-11-2025, 08:51 AM
I'm working on a song based on Yeats's two Byzantium poems. The first stanza of Sailing to Byzantium is gorgeous, but the rest of the poem falters. All of 'Byzantium' is beautiful. However, neither lends itself to song. To make them singable, lines have to be chopped and changed.
I got the first stanza (rewritten) as:
That’s no country for old men.
The young in their hearts, the bees,
birds in the trees,
The salmon-falls and mackerel-crowded seas.
The original was:
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees,
—Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas...
Interesting.
I got the first stanza (rewritten) as:
That’s no country for old men.
The young in their hearts, the bees,
birds in the trees,
The salmon-falls and mackerel-crowded seas.
The original was:
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees,
—Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas...
Interesting.