Poetry : Sailing to Byzantuim by W. B. Yeats 1865- 1939

Life of Yeats and his features

Yeats is considered as one of the most important poets in twentieth- century poetry. As a modern poet, he can be full romantic. As an Irish man, he had a great love for Ireland. Yeats 's poetry has some poetic qualities and techniques which make him different from the other

symbolists in English poetry. Yeats is a dreamer, full of futuristic and prophetic dreams, and a visionary at heart. He has a belief in magic, fairies and other types of superstition. Yeats was interested in the Irish myth and folklore. Yeats has been considered as one of the most famous and significant symbolist poets in the symbolist movement in English literature.

Sailing to Byzantium

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

I

That is no country for old men. The young

In one another's arms, birds in the trees,

—Those dying generations—at their song,

The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,

Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long

Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.

Caught in that sensual music all neglect

Monuments of unageing intellect.

II

An aged man is but a paltry thing,

A tattered coat upon a stick, unless

Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing

For every tatter in its mortal dress,

Nor is there singing school but studying

Monuments of its own magnificence;

And therefore I have sailed the seas and come

To the holy city of Byzantium.

III

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.

IV

Once out of nature I shall never take

My bodily form from any natural thing,

But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make

Of hammered gold and gold enamelling

To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;

Or set upon a golden bough to sing

To lords and ladies of Byzantium

Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

Sailing to Byzantuim by W. B. Yeats 1865- 1939

      Yeats wrote this poem when he was an old man. He is in his sixties. He says that his native country '' Ireland '' is not suitable for old men. It is a country of the young who have vitalities and activities. Those young, lovers, are dancing, singing and enjoying in one another's arms. They are active like the melodious birds in the trees. The birds sing their song which is a sensual one. the young and the birds are dying generations. Even the salmon and the mackerel are two kinds of fish can swim strongly against the currents of the seas but they are mortal and dying. Fish, flesh and foul are active and more active in summer time like the strength of the young but they are impermanent and transient. Then the poet wants to show the stages of human life such as birth, life and death. All those dying generations are born, alive and died. In Ireland, Yeats illustrates the music can come through the young and the song of the birds in the trees. He tries to say that his country ''Ireland'' is filled just with pleasures and sensuality and neglects one eternal generation that is represented by monuments of unageing intellect. What kind of generation will remain eternal forever? Monuments will remain everlasting and perpetual.

      Yeats compares an aged man to a paltry thing. He is useless and futile. He is an old and torn coat upon a stick full of dust. Here, the poet wants to compare between the body of the old man and his soul. The soul will clap and sing aloud. The soul will study monuments of its own magnificence. So Yeats decided to sail to another world, Byzantium. It is a holy city. It is a symbol of art, spirituality and perfection. In Byzantium, there are artistic and creative achievements.

Notes:

1- In Ireland, monuments as neglected remains. Lovers and creatures are dying and temporary. Stanza one refers to sensuality that comes from pleasures of the young, the birds and the creatures.

2- In Byzantium, monuments will be studied. They will ne eternal and immortal. Stanza two refers to spirituality that comes from the soul that travels to another world.

Sailing to Byzantuim by W. B. Yeats 1865- 1939

        Yeats apostrophizes the sages ( the wise men ) who are standing in God's holy fire. The holy fire which purges the soul from the impurity of the earthly and worldly life. (the gold mosaic) Yeats suggests permanence and value, transforms the natural world into emblems of artistic creation in this poem. Then, the poet wants to detach himself from the flux of his human life. Yeats wants the sages to burn out his mortal heart. The heart contains all the human and worldly passion. The poet wants to show that he calls for the death of the body to announce the rebirth of the soul. He wants his sages to the singing- masters or teachers of his spirituality. His heart is consumed away and it is sick with desire. The poet's soul is now free and eternal by the artifice of eternity which refers to the golden bird. Yeats uses the bird as a symbol of the intellectual joy of eternity, as contrasted with the instinctive joy of human life.

      The poet desires to transform his bodily form into a golden bird. This golden bird is the poet's soul. It has three features: it is made of gold. It makes the drowsy emperor awake. It sits upon a golden bough and sings a song including three different themes: past, present and future.

       This poem sets forth a conflict between the world of reality and the world of imagination, represented by body and soul. Other sets of opposites intensify the conflict; the young people and the '' old men'', passion and wisdom, life and death, the sensual country of the young people and the holy city of Byzantium.

Notes:

1- Wollman ( the writer of your textbook) says that Byzantium was a Greek city built on the eastern part of the site of Constantinople, in which it was merged in A.D. 330. At the division of the eastern and Western Empires between his two sons on the death of Theodosius in 395, Byzantium became the capital of the Eastern Empire till 1453. Its situation was remarkable for its beauty and security. The church of Santa Sophia embodies the surviving monuments. Wollman views that Byzantium in this poem is a holy city, because it is the capital of Eastern Christendom and because it is Yeats's holy city and heaven of imagination. It has inherited the perfection of craftsmanship.

2- the poet addresses the spirits of Byzantium ( the sages) he begs them to come from the holy fire and spiral down to where he is sick with desire. He wants them to consume away his heart, blinded with its fleshly, mortal dreams, and teach him how to be immortal, teach him the secrets of the soul and of art, of the artifice of eternity.

3- A golden bird sings different themes of songs when he hangs on a golden bough. Those dissimilar songs included all the times: the past, the present and the future . His song, when he becomes a golden bird, will be that of spiritual delight. He will be surrounded, not by the young lovers and other animal creatures of the sensual cycle, but by an audience that is graceful and abstract. In Byzantium, he will have no age; past, present, and future are all one there. This golden bird is the soul. This bird is the poet's soul that sings to lords and ladies. This bird is an artifact. The final image of a bird of hammered gold and gold enamelling, singing of what is past, or passing, or come.