Introduction:
The poem Sailing to Byzantium is written by an Irish poet W. B. Yeats (1865-1939). It was published in 1926 for the first time.
The poem is about an old man who leaves the country of the young ones and travels to the city of Byzantium in order to get spiritual enlightenment.
Literary Context:
W.B. Yeats was an influential Irish poet in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. He was awarded a Nobel Prize for his works.
Unlike his contemporaries who were experimenting the free verse form, Yeats used traditional forms of writing poetry just as the use of ottava rima in the poem Sailing to Byzantium.
B. Yeats was influenced by the visionary poetry of the Romantic poet William Blake and the Pre-Raphaelites. He was considered a symbolist whose poetry was a reaction to the naturalistic and realistic poetry of the Victorian age. His poetry was about dreams, imagination, visions, magic, and mysticism.
He wrote the poem Sailing to Byzantium in 1926 when he was in his sixties. He spoke about writing the poem that “I am trying to write about the state of my soul and some of my thoughts about the subject I have put into a poem called Sailing to Byzantium.
Historical Context
It was a period of chaos in Irish history when the poem Sailing to Byzantium was written. As a result of the Easter Rising in 1916 by the Irish Republican forces against the British occupation, Irish Free State was formed by a small group of Northern counties.
Yeats who was an Irish Republican served as a senator for this state. The poem Sailing to Byzantium was written during that time period.
Sailing to Byzantium Summary
Stanza I (line 1-8)
The poem begins with the speaker saying that old-aged people have no place in the world. The young ones are lying in each others’ arms. Trees are full of singing birds, unaware that they will die one day and the water is full of swimming fish.
Every living thing that is born has to die one day. There all summer long, the world rings with the sensual music that they neglect the old ones; they pay no attention to them.
Stanza II (line 9-16)
The speaker further says that an old man in this world is a small and inferior thing just like a scarecrow unless he keeps his soul alive within its old, worn-out body. No one can teach a person to keep his soul alive and sing.
It is rather done by studying the magnificence of the person’s own soul. The speaker then says that this is the reason why he has traveled through the seas in order to reach the holy city of Byzantium.
Stanza III (line 17-24)
The speaker addresses the good and wise men who are standing in the holy fire of God. Just like the tiles in the walls of Byzantium churches. The speaker asks the sages to come out of the fire, whirling in spirals like the bobbin of a spinning wheel. He wants them to become the signing masters of his soul.
He asks them to take away his fleshly heart which is connected to his old and failing body and it knows not its mortality. The speaker wants the sages to take him to the everlasting world of eternity and permanence.
Stanza IV (line 25-32)
The speaker says that once his soul has left his body behind, he will never acquire his bodily form again. Instead, he will acquire the form of a beautiful golden art just like those made by goldsmiths in ancient Greece in order to hang in the emperor’s bedroom.
Or he will become a golden bird placed on the branch of a golden tree. And he will sing to the lords and ladies of Byzantium in order to educate them about the past, present, or the future.
Sailing to Byzantium Themes
Old Age
The poem is about the difficulties that elderly people suffer when they become old. Their old and weak body seems a burden to them but the speaker says that those old ones who avail themselves the chance of beautifying their souls by teaching them how to sing, actually get spiritual enlightenment.
The very first stanza of the poem describes a scene of a country where young ones are busy enjoying their bodily and material life whereas they neglect the fact that they are mortal.
That is the reason, the speaker who is an old man with a worn-out body, feels at odds with the country of the young. He uses the word “that” in order to talk about the country of the young which means he does not belong to the place.
In the second stanza, he calls his body a “tattered coat” which means he does not consider it a real self but a garment that his soul is wearing.
Instead, he talks about the soul saying, “clap its hand and sing” which means it considers the soul to have a body, such a body that does not become old or weak over time.
The speaker then travels to the city of Byzantium in his imaginations. He addresses the sages there, who are long ago dead. The speaker tells them that once he dies, he will meet them and will never acquire his bodily form.
This means for the old-aged speaker, the body is not really significant. For him, a singing soul matters more than a worn-out body.
Mortality
The poem has one of the main ideas as mortality. The speaker feels himself an outsider in the country of the young ones because they are all busy in enjoying life that is mortal. Instead, he travels to the spiritual city of Byzantium because he wants to achieve spiritual peace and calmness.
For the speaker, his mortal body is no more than a worn-out garment that his soul wears. He says that he would never take his body back once he dies. He would rather enjoy the peace of singing soul.
Art and its Power
The poem talks about two kinds of art. One is music and the other one is visual art. It is the power of the art that he can see the dead sages on the walls and can talk to them. Just like that the speaker wants to acquire the shape of a golden bird that would sing to the lords and ladies.
For the speaker, art is immortal and it has the power to convey the messages of the past to future generations. A song, which is a form of art would carry his message to the future generations and would tell them about the past, present, or future.
Sailing to Byzantium Analysis
The poem Sailing to Byzantium written by W. B. Yeats is a poem about the spiritual journey of an old man who leaves the world of the young in search of immortality and spiritual peace.
The first half of the poem talks about the world of the young and the second half talks about Byzantium city.
The poem has four stanzas that are written in ottava rima. The tone changes as the poem moves ahead. It is sad and lonely at the beginning but then it gains momentum and energy. The speaker comes to know that as a result of his spiritual journey he will find his destiny and will finally gain spiritual enlightenment.
The poem begins with an old-aged speaker leaving the country of the young behind where the young ones are busy enjoying themselves. The birds in trees are busy singing and fish are swimming in the sea.
This whole scene is described in order to show the pleasant and beautiful atmosphere of the country but then suddenly the tone changes. The speaker says that all that are busy in sensual music are all mortal beings. Those things that are born have to die no matter, they are humans or other living beings.
The second stanza begins with the speaker saying that an old man is an insignificant thing. He compares an old man with a scarecrow, using a metaphor, whose body is just like a worn-out garment.
Then the speaker says that old men are small and unimportant until their souls learn to sing. That is why he has left the country of the young and has sailed to the city of Byzantium in order to teach his soul how to sing.
The speaker then pleads to the portraits of the sages on the walls to come out and to be his masters. He wants them to become the singing masters of his soul. Here an apostrophe is used in order to address the long-ago dead sages.
He says that his heart is full of energy and desire but it is fastened to a dying animal. Here the “dying animal” is a metaphor for the old, worn-out body of the speaker. He wants to become an eternal being.
In the last stanza, the speaker’s tone becomes lively and energetic. He says that once he dies, he will never acquire his bodily shape again.
He says that he will instead become a piece of art, a golden bird that would sing to the lords and ladies; the future generations, and would tell them about the past, present or future.
Significance of the Title
The title of the poem Sailing to Byzantium is so significant that it gives a clue to the reader about the poem. The speaker of the poem who is an old man is unhappy in the country of the young ones.
He goes in search of spiritual enlightenment and immortality and sails to the city of Byzantium. For the speaker that is the place where he really belongs to.
Point of View
The poem is written in the first-person narrative where the speaker is an old man. In the beginning, the poem seems to be a sad reaction to the old age that the man experiences in a world full of youth and life and where he feels himself to be alienated and lonely.
But the speaker does not allow himself to fall into such a decline rather he devotes himself to the idea of spirituality. He decides to keep his soul alive and to teach it singing through his old and failing body dies.
The voyage of the speaker to Byzantium is actually his internal spiritual journey that he travels in order to keep his soul alive. He goes deep into himself and teaches his soul the eternity that people with spirituality achieve.
Tone
The tone of the poem is sad at the beginning which reflects the loneliness of the old-aged speaker. The tone becomes alive just like the speaker’s soul when he decides to keep his soul alive and to teach it how to sing.
Form
The poem Sailing to Byzantium has four stanzas. Each of the stanzas has eight lines which means each stanza is an octave. The poem is written in an ancient pattern of ottava rima (a form of poetry that consists of stanzas of eight lines of ten or eleven syllables.
Its rhyme scheme is ABABABCC. But the poem does not follow any regular pattern beyond that.
Meter
The poem is written primarily in iambic pentameter though this meter is not consistent throughout the poem. For example, the below-given line shows that it is written in iambic pentameter.
An aged man is but a paltry thing (line 9)
Even the very first line of the poem shows an irregularity in meter:
That is no country for old men. The young (line 1)
The above line has six stresses instead of the typical five stresses in an iambic pentameter. The heavy stresses on “That”, “no country“ and “old men” help to reflect the first scene of the poem.
This irregularly reflects that the old man feels odd in the lyrical and delightful world of the young ones that the speaker is going to describe in a more regular and rhythmic way.
The second line is more regular than the first one except for a trochee following the caesura.
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees, (line 2)
The iambic rhythm is broken throughout the poem at those places where moments of emphasis, change, or stress occur. For example:
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre (line 19)
The rhythm goes to normal at places of details or peace.
Once out of nature I shall never take (line 25)
My bodily form from any natural thing
(line 26)
In the above lines, the speaker explains what he wants to do with his soul after his death. The regular rhythmic pattern reflects the peace that the speaker longs for.
Setting
The poem is said to have three settings; the place where the young are living, the city of Byzantium, and the speaker’s mind where the above two places are located.
The first setting is the place where there is no place for the old people. The speaker describes it in the following words: “That is no country for old men.” This is a place for the young ones busy in their lives. They neglect the old aged people that is why the old ones feel themselves to be alone and neglected in that setting.
The second setting is the city of Byzantium. That is a place of spiritual enlightenment. The speaker travels to the spiritual city of Byzantium only by the voyage of imagination because it has long been transformed into a different place; it had become Constantinople under the rule of Romans in 330 C.E. while the place is now the city of Istanbul.
The city of Byzantium has a spiritual significance in the speaker’s mind and has artistic perfection too.
Both of the above-mentioned locations are actually the products of the speaker’s mind where the world of the young reflects the real world around him and he feels alienated and lonely in it. While Byzantium is a place that is visited by the speaker only in his imagination.
Symbolism
Gold
Gold is used as a symbol for value, status and for the riches of the soul from ancient times. In the poem, gold is used as a symbol for art and spiritual peace. Towards the end of the poem, the speaker wishes to acquire a form that will be altogether golden. This means he wants to become an immortal and a peaceful being.
Art
Two forms of art are discussed in the poem. One form is music while the other one is visual art. They are used as symbols for immortality and eternity where music can be passed down to other people.
Visual art in the same way is a way of preservation that outlives humans. Art is a way of preserving the past and that is why it is used as a symbol for eternity.
Birds and their songs
Birds appear two times in the poem. Once they appear in the world of young peoples as a sign of mortality, unaware of their mortality, they sing beautifully and represent beauty.
Towards the end of the poem, however, the golden bird that the speaker wants to become after his death is a sign of immortality.
The speaker wishes to acquire the shape of a golden bird that would sing the songs of spiritual peace and calmness.
Since a golden bird cannot literally sing, the symbol also represents the everlasting work of art. Which means he will be an artwork that would witness the world go by. It will remind people of the past that it has seen through the years.
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city that was renamed Constantinople after Emperor Constantine, who made it the capital of the Roman Empire. Then the city became modern-day Istanbul.
Byzantium is considered to be associated with ancient religion and beautiful art.
The city was long ago lost when the poem was written but its art still remains alive which makes it a symbol for spiritual immortality.
Literary Devices
Alliteration
It is the repetition of the same consonant sound in the initial syllable within the neighboring words. For example:
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long (line 5)
Whatever is begotten, born and dies. (line 6)
The repetition of the same consonant sound f is significant in placing all the three things on the same level as the speaker in the next line says that all the living things, be they humans, fishes, or birds are destined to die.
Assonance
It is the repetition of the same vowel sounds within the neighboring words. For example:
My bodily form from any natural thing, (line 26)
The above line has the repetition of the vowel sounds o and a.
Apostrophe
It is a literary device that is used to address a person who is not present, to a dead person, or to a personified object. For example:
O sages standing in God’s holy fire (line 17)
In the above line, the speaker addresses the wise people of the Byzantium city who are long dead.
Consonance
It is the repetition of the same consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of successive words. For example:
For every is tatter in its mortal dress, (line 12)
The above line has the repetition of the same consonant sound t.
Enjambment
It is the continuation of a sentence beyond the line break.
That is no country for old men. The young (line 1)
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees, (line 2)
The first line is enjambed with the next line that is why the statement is continuous with the next one beyond the line break. The young people are busy with each other, birds in trees are singing while the old ones find no place for them in the place.
Caesura
It is a break between words within a metrical foot.
That is no country for old men. The young (line 1)
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees, (line 2)
-Those dying generations- at their song, (line 3)
The above lines have line breaks within the metrical foot.
Diacope
It is a literary device that repeats a word or a phrase with some intervening words in between.
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing (line 11)
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling (line 28)
The above two lines have the repetition of the words sing and gold with some intervening words in between. Both of the words refer to kinds of art.
Imperatives
They are used to convey command, request or forbindance.
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre, (line 19)
And be singing masters of my soul. (line 20)
The speaker in the above lines pleads to the sages of the Byzantium city. He requests them to come out of the holy fire and to become the masters of his soul in order to teach it how to sing.
Metaphor
- A tattered coat upon a stick
The speaker compares himself and other old men to a scarecrow. He says that an old man is very small and insignificant like a scarecrow.
- Dying Animal:
The speaker compares his old and worn out body to a dying animal. The speaker says that though his heart is full of desire and energy, it is fastened to a dying animal which is a metaphor used for his body. His old and weak body is just like a dying animal.
Paradox
It is a self-contradictory statement.
Whatever is begotten, born and dies. (line 6)
The above line has two contradictory and opposite things. The word born is followed by its opposite dies.
Parataxis
It is a rhetorical device in which phrases or clauses are placed one after another without the use of conjunctions. For example:
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees, (line 2)
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, (line 4)
In the above two lines, parataxis has been used.
Sibilance
It is a literary device that repeats soft consonant sounds (s, sh, ch and z etc.) in words in order to create a whooshing or a hissing sound. For example let’s consider the first stanza of the poem:
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.
Rhyme Scheme
The poem Sailing to Byzantium follows the traditional pattern of ottava rima that has a rhyme scheme ABABABCC but it is not totally regular. It often uses slant rhymes.
Slant Rhymes
unless (line 10)
dress (line 12)
magnificence (line 14)
wall (line 18)
soul (line 20)
animal (line 22)
Regular Rhymes
neglect (line 7)
intellect (line 8)
come (line 15)
Byzantium (line 16)
