W. B. Yeats

"O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity."

- 'Sailing To Byzantium' by W. B. Yeats

In this poem, Yeats is despairing of his ageing body, and he yearns to be immortalised in art, to be taken into "the artifice of eternity," that is, for him, art. I was particularly struck by this quote, I think you really feel his desperation to escape his own frail humanity, as he begs - "Consume my heart away, sick with desire and fastened to a dying animal, it knows not what it is." - he is searching for a way to make himself - his heart - eternal. He does not want to be merely human, put simply, he does not want to die - and I think that is the most human desire of all.