with imagination to deal with the themes of aging art and spirituality He wants to leave his old tired body behind and go to this special place where he can live forever through art and wisdom He says And therefore I have sailed the seas and come To the holy city of Byzantium Yeats uses the real history of Byzantium and turns it into a dream world where his soul can be eternal like the artworks He wants to be free from pain and death and become part of something beautiful and everlasting The Second Coming This is a very famous poem where Yeats mixes a Christian myth with the real problems of the world He wrote this poem after World War I It was a time when people were feeling lost scared and confused In the Christian religion the Second Coming means the return of Jesus Christ to save the world But Yeats changes this idea to present a world which is full of chaos Instead of Jesus he shows the wake of a terrible beast And what rough beast its hour come round at last Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born This rough beast is not a savior It is a sign of something terrible coming Yeats thinks the world is entering a new dark time By altering the myth of the Second Coming Yeats portrays the real-world troubles of his time Easter This poem is about the Easter Rising a real event in Irish history In some Irish leaders fought against British rule for freedom Many of them were killed Yeats writes about these people with great respect and sadness The title of the poem includes Easter which is a Christian holiday In Easter people remember Jesus rising from the dead Likewise Yeats is remembering these great leaders whose sacrifice helped Ireland to become independent As Yeats writes A terrible beauty is born Yeats shows that these rebels have become part of something greater Their death was not in vain they became heroes in Ireland s history By using the idea of Easter and connecting it with the real uprising Yeats mixes myth and history to give the event deep meaning The Lake Isle of Innisfree In this poem Yeats talks about a real island in Ireland called Innisfree But this beautiful island seems like a mythic utopia where the speaker wants to find peace The speaker wants to escape the busy city life and live among natural surroundings He wants to build a small cabin there with clay and wattles He wants to plant nine bean-rows and keep a hive for the honeybees He says I will arise and go now and go to Innisfree Even though Innisfree is a real place Yeats turns it into a kind of mythical paradise a place of calm beauty and peace A Prayer for My Daughter Yeats wrote this poem for his newborn daughter He was worried about the world which was full of war and trouble He prays that his daughter will grow up safe and good He talks about Helen of Troy a woman from Greek myth who was very beautiful Her beauty started a great war Yeats does not want her daughter to be like Helen He wants his daughter to be kind and wise not too beautiful In conclusion Yeats s ability to combine myth and history is one of the defining features of his poetry It makes his poems deep emotional and meaningful It makes his poetry so special and unforgettable