Death

“Blood and the Moon“ by W. B. Yeats (1928)

Published along with “Death” in Yeats’s 1933 collection The Winding Stair and Other Poems, this more expansive poem was also partly inspired by Kevin O’Higgins’s assassination. Additionally, the poem focuses on the titular “winding stair” of the collection, the central staircase in the 15th-century Irish tower in which Yeats was living, the Thoor Ballylee Castle. The castle was a central inspiration for Yeats writing and is referred to in both the title of this collection and the collection which proceeded it, 1928’s The Tower.

“Byzantium“ by W.B. Yeats (1933)

Also included in Yeats’s collection The Winding Stair and Other Poems, “Byzantium” is a follow up to Yeats’s earlier famous poem “Sailing to Byzantium.” Like “Death,” Byzantium is a reflection on mortality, but one that more deeply engages with Yeats’s spiritualist ideas. While “Death” is firmly fixed on the event and psychology of mortality, “Byzantium” explores Yeats’s understanding of the difference between the physical and spiritual selves, and in the ways in which the spiritual continues even beyond death.

“Discrete Series“ by George Oppen (1934)

Published in his debut poetry collection of the same title essentially concurrent with Yeats’s The Winding Stair, Oppen’s poem is both connected to and fundamentally distinct from Yeats’s work. The book opens with a forward from Ezra Pound, who worked with and influenced (and was influenced by) Yeats. The poem was written in the same period of time as Yeats’s “Death,” but even a cursory glance shows that the poems could hardly be less alike. Oppen’s poem provides a great formal, stylistic, and thematic counterpoint to Yeats’s work, highlighting the bold simplicity and traditionalism of Yeats’s poetic choices.