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“Sailing to Byzantium,” by the Irish poet W.B. Yeats (1865-1939), reflects on the difficulty of keeping one’s soul alive in a fragile, failing human body. The speaker, an old man, leaves behind the country of the young for a visionary quest to Byzantium, the ancient city that was a major seat of early Christianity.
Summary. ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ by W.B. Yeats tells the story of a man who is traveling to a new country, Byzantium, a spiritual resort to him. Byzantium was an ancient Greek colony later named Constantinople, which is situated where Istanbul, Turkey, now stands.
A summary of “Sailing to Byzantium” in William Butler Yeats's Yeats's Poetry. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Yeats's Poetry and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.
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.
“Sailing to Byzantium” was first published in Yeats’s 1928 collection, The Tower. Critics generally acknowledge that Yeats produced some of his best work after he received the Nobel Prize in...
Jul 10, 2023 · Summary of the poem Sailing to Byzantium by Yeats: Sailing to Byzantium poem is divided into four distinct parts. It delves into the themes of ageing, mortality, the desire for spiritual transcendence, and the search for enduring artistic significance.
Jan 11, 2017 · ‘Sailing to Byzantium’: summary and background W. B. Yeats wrote ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ in 1927, when he was in his early sixties, and published a year later in The Tower .
Synopsis. Written in 1926 (when Yeats was 60 or 61), "Sailing to Byzantium" is Yeats' definitive statement about the agony of old age and the imaginative and spiritual work required to remain a vital individual even when the heart is "fastened to a dying animal" (the body).
Sailing to Byzantium: William Butler Yeats The poem traces the speaker’s movement from youth to age, and the corresponding geographical move from Ireland, a country just being born as Yeats wrote, to Byzantium.
“Sailing to Byzantium” is a short poem of thirty-two lines divided into four numbered stanzas. The title suggests an escape to a distant, imaginary land where the speaker achieves mystical...
