ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -There, “all summer long” the world rings with the “sensual music” that makes the young neglect the old, whom the speaker describes as “Monuments of unageing intellect.”

Detailed explanation-2: -"Caught in the sensual music” (line 8) of their own existence and of reproducing themselves, the young “neglect monuments of unageing intellect” (line 8-9). In other words, they neglect old people, who remain keen and youthful intellectually though withered physically.

Detailed explanation-3: -Yeats’ poems are continually referenced in popular culture, including the poem ‘Sailing to Byzantium’. Its first line, “That is no country for old men…” was used for the title of Cormac McCarthy’s popular novel, “No Country for Old Men, ” later adapted for the big screen.

Detailed explanation-4: -“Sailing to Byzantium, ” by the Irish poet W.B. Yeats (1865-1939), reflects on the difficulty of keeping one’s soul alive in a fragile, failing human body. The speaker, an old man, leaves behind the country of the young for a visionary quest to Byzantium, the ancient city that was a major seat of early Christianity.