Analysis Of Sailing To Byzantium By William Butler Yeats

Decent Essays
Old age is inevitable, but imagination creates a hope for the chance to become young once again after death. William Butler Yeats was one of the most influential writers during the twentieth century. Born in Ireland in the 1860s, he used his Irish roots and influences as inspiration for his writings. He is responsible for creating many movements and organizations in Ireland, and was a very well respected writer, activist, and politician. “Sailing to Byzantium” is one of Yeats’ most well-known works. In the poem, Yeats incorporates many facets of his life to depict his interest in the mystical afterlife world along with his life long activism and commitment to the advancement of literature. “Sailing to Byzantium” was written only a few …show more content…
Also according to poets.org, Yeats was involved in the Celtic Revival which was motion against the English rule in Ireland’s cultural influences. Yeats’ poetry “was strongly influenced by Pound, becoming more modern in its concision and imagery, but Yeats never abandoned his strict adherence to traditional verse forms…he remained uninhibited in advancing his idiosyncratic philosophy, and his poetry continued to grow stronger as he grew older” (poets.org). “In 1932 Yeats founded the Irish Academy of Letters and in 1933 he was briefly involved in the fascist Blueshirts in Dublin”(poetryconnection.net). According to “William Butler Yeats Overview” Books & Literature Classics, in 1923, Yeats received a Nobel Prize for Literature. A political and literary activist, Yeats was regarded as a strong contributor to both of these …show more content…
According to British Writers: Retorspective Supplement 1, Yeats wrote “Sailing to Byzantium” at the age of sixty-two. His attraction to mythological characters and imagery is given life as he tells of a poet’s journey to Byzantium. The traveler appears to seek a connection with the afterworld and a release from temporal existence. Discussed in Richard F. Peterson’s The Artifice of Eternity, the poet in “Sailing to Byzantium” is traveling to the holy city where he seeks a religious rebirth by a “perne in a gyre.” The poet wishes that his body and heart may break away from each other so that his soul can gather “Into the article of eternity.” True to his attraction to stories of folklore and tales, Yeats uses imagery to depict the poet’s soul as a golden bird whose song is able to keep “a drowsy Emperor awake” and is able to link the lords and ladies of Byzantium to their past, present, and future. Peterson also tells how the poet goes to Byzantium in hopes to escape the older generations and join the young ones as his life comes to an end. Jay Parini, author of British Writers: Retrospective Supplement 1, unveils the truth behind the poet’s journey in “Sailing to Byzantium.” In lines fifteen-sixteen, Yeats writes “And therefore I have sailed the seas and come/ To the holy city of Byzantium,” Parini discusses the word “therefore.” It reveals

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