William Butler Yeats

W.B.Yeats stands out as a dominant figure of his time. He was born to a strongly
protestant family in a Dublin suburb on June 13th 1865. As a boy he was sensitive
and artistic but had an unhappy childhood. The circumstances of his life and his
unique temperament led him through all the movements and influences of his age.
Though centered in himself, in search of his artistic personality, he became a part of
all he saw and felt. He is one of the most difficult poets of his period. He is a
symbolist, an occultist and became deeply engaged in the Irish political movements.
Yeats believed in the theory of ‘arts for life’s sake’ and also believed that literature
is always personal, always one man’s vision of the world and one man experiences.

Sailing to Byzantium is probably Yeats’ most famous single poem, published in

The Tower in 1928. It inaugurates Yeats’ third period where he was concerned to
explore and express the intricacies of a private mythology. Byzantium is the centre
of spiritual and intellectual activity; it is the old name of Constantinople or Istambul.
Byzantium was once the capital of the Eastern capital of the Roman Empire. It was
famous for its mosaic art and metal enameling. After the Roman conquest by the
Turks in 1453, it saw the revival of Greek art and culture. Sailing to Byzantium
describes the metaphorical journey of a man pursuing his own mission of eternal life
as well as his conception of paradise. The poem comprises of 4 stanzas, each made
up of 8 syllable lines. Byzantium represents artistic achievement and an emphasis
on the spiritual values of life. It also represents modern man rich in content especially
in its emphasis on philosophical issues concerning the life and mind of the modern
man.
 Summary
Sailing to Byzantium
Sailing to Byzantium is one of Yeats most notable and beautiful poem about old
age and immortality through arts. The poem begins by stating that an old man has
no place in the world of the young people who are all caught up in sensual pleasure.
The usual meaning is that in the world of the young and the loving ‘monuments of
unageing intellect’ stand neglected. He feels that Ireland is not the right place for old
men because of the neglect of the ageless artistic achievements of the intellect. In
the country of dying generation, of birds and young lovers, celebrate things which
are a slave to the natural cycle of birth and death. The young lovers who are in each
other arms, the birds who are in the trees and the salmon-falls and the mackerel-
crowded seas, fish and fowl all sing only one song-the song of the senses. At the
same time they all are subject to death.

The 11 stanza describe that aged man is worthless, who is otherwise a petty
thing with his physical powers decaying continuously. The only alternative available
for the old man is to have his soul educated in such a way that it starts to clap its
hands and sing. In this state of robust joy the soul has to sing louder with every
tattered in its mortal dress, that is, he is just like a scarecrow. Old age acquires some
value only if it is accompanied by a spiritual recognition of the great works of art,
but to have the right school is difficult in Ireland because every singing school
instead of caring for monuments of unageing intellect is busy studying monuments
of its own significance. All these make the poet discard the world of sensual pleasure
and come to the holy city of Byzantium which represents artistic achievement and
an emphasis on the spiritual values of life.

In the third stanza, the poet addresses the spirit (great artists) of Byzantium ‘o
sages standing in God’s holy fire’ an obvious reference to Byzantium art work. The
great artists who were standing in God’s holy fire are as similar as the figure stands
in the gold mosaic of a wall. He begs them to come down from their position in a
rapid whirling movement and be the educator or the singing master of his soul, so
that the poet’s soul can learn the right kind of song-the song which becomes louder
as the body decay more and more. First thing the poet wants them to do is to purify
his soul. He wants them to consume away his heart, blinded with its fleshy, mortal
dreams and teach him the secrets of the soul and of the art of the ‘artifice of eternity’.

The poet then imagined what the immortality would be like. Once he is out of
this cycle of nature he will break all contact with the natural things, that is, with the
physical world. Instead of taking any bodily form from natural thing, the poet wants
to take the form which was hammered into golden shape and golden enameling
which was done by the Grecian goldsmiths, who could sing to awaken the sleepy
emperor. The poet longs to be a golden bird gathered into the artifice of eternity, so
that he be set upon a golden branch in the court of Byzantium, that enable him to
sing of all times-past, present and future to the Lord and Ladies of Byzantium. Infact
the song would be different from the sensual music of dying generations and will
sing of monuments of unageing intellect.

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