Constantinople, Istanbul, something or other.....

[Grendal_71]

Why did Constantinople get the works?


-just sayin'

[BentonGrey]

It's nobody's business but the Turks.

[Grendal_71]

Exactly.

[daglob]

I know I'm coming in late, but even old New York was once New Amsterdam...

[Glitch Girl]

Why'd they change it?

[Grendal_71]

*Shrug*....I can't say.....

[Mr. Hamrick]

People just liked it better that way

[Grendal_71]

So!

[Deaths Jester]

ARGHHHH!!!!  So many violent impulses to spew and I can't get them out!  *faints*

[BentonGrey]

...if you've a date in Constantinople

[daglob]

...She'll be waiting in Istanbul.

Sheesh! This song is older than I am.

[Deaths Jester]

Because she likes those turks....

[Panther_Gunn]

btw, if anyone's still lost as to what's going on, this link will explain it to you.

[Deaths Jester]

btw, if anyone's still lost as to what's going on, this link will explain it to you.

You actually think there's someone on here who doesn't know what's going on?

[Panther_Gunn]

btw, if anyone's still lost as to what's going on, this link will explain it to you.

You actually think there's someone on here who doesn't know what's going on?

Well, considering that the source is practically ancient.....then, yes, I do.  Not counting those of us that also practically qualify as ancient ourselves, of course.

[stumpy]

I don't know if I qualify as ancient, but I am annoyed that Byzantium gets no play in this whole farce. Criminy, not even a mention! "Constantinople" my eye! Emperor Constantine would be appalled. Variable-inople is more like it.

[Deaths Jester]

I don't know if I qualify as ancient, but I am annoyed that Byzantium gets no play in this whole farce. Criminy, not even a mention! "Constantinople" my eye! Emperor Constantine would be appalled. Variable-inople is more like it.

Well if we're going to gripe about old times then what about Mesopotamia...it gets no place either.

[Grendal_71]

I still own a few acres in Carthage, but the real-estate bubble there REALLY burst.....

[The Phantom Eyebrow]

Byzantium you say Stumpy? That is no country for old men.

[stumpy]

Ah, but I was much younger when Constantinople was called Byzantium. Back before the crowds of mackerel annoyed me so! ;-)

FWIW, I wonder what WBY would have thought of video games, where the youthful spirit can express its vitality, regardless of any infirmity of the body.

(BTW, I always thought that he meant that Byzantium was a country for old men. That's why he was sailing there, right?)

[BentonGrey]

Right you are Stumpy, my friend.  Note that the poem's "That" appears several stanzas before Byzantium, and it is in preference for the city of sages (Byzantium) that the narrator leaves behind the world of youth, seeking someone or something that can teach him how to escape the irrelevance of age.

I imagine Yeats, with his love of artifice and art, would find the possibilities of technology, like video games, really fascinating.  The ability to live out a life of joy and action, no matter your age, would definitely strike his fancy.  Also, the ability to create virtual worlds where you could literally expunge every trace of ugliness or age would be a regular golden bird of wonder to him.