Throughout our lives, symbols and their meanings have had a great influence on our daily lives. Whether it is our country symbolizing itself with a national flag or seal, or our own faith, which is symbolized as a cross or an angel; in fact religion has many types of symbols to connect it together and for representation. Besides religion having many symbols, the great poet William Butler Yeats had many symbols in his works and poetry. In his countless poems, Yeats used different symbols to convey his message to his readers. Although from reading many of his works, many of Yeats' poems revolve around death. In William Butler Yeats lyrics titled "When you are Old" "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" "The Wild Swans at Coole" "The Second Coming" and "Sailing to Byzantium" all have their own kind of symbolism that Yeats uses to convey his message to his readers. The first text titled "When you are Old" by William Yeats has the main message of his lover leaving him, but uses the symbolism of a book. The main message of this poem is that William Yeats had a mistress who loved Yeats as much as he loved her; the only problem was that the woman Yeats loved was a “rebel” activist for women's rights. She thought that if she got married, it would look bad on her, being controlled by a man and trying to push for women's rights. Yeats publishes a book of poems, giving her one of his first copies. In this Yeats hopes that one day, when she is old, "by the fire, she will take this book, read slowly and dream of the soft look" (Yeats, When you are Old, page 1140, lines 2-3 ) and then hopes that she she regrets not marrying him. The book of poems he publishes is a representation, a symbol, of future regret for his...... medium of paper...... throughout Yeats's poems of, “When you are Old” “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” “The Wild Swans at Coole” “The Second Coming” and “Sailing to Byzantium” where Yeats uses these symbols to convey his message to the reader or listener. Symbolism is an important part of all of our lives, and Yeats understood this concept and incorporated it into all of his poetry. Whether it was Yeats using the symbol of a sailing ship to represent coming death, or his use of the swan bird to also represent waiting death. Yeats also uses a book to describe his love life and a falcon and his falconer to represent the lost faith in the society we lived in. However, we may not know it, but we too use symbols throughout our lives. Whether it's a cross necklace we wear, or a certain brand of shoes, shirts, or socks we wear, symbolism plays an important role in our lives, and Yeats captured this in his poems..