Yeats’s Sailing To Byzantium – An Old Man’s Liberation From The Sensual World

Abstract

William Butler Yeats has been called the principal representative of the symbolist movement in English literature. Byzantium is one of the most impressive symbols in his poetry. In this poem Byzantium Yeats laughs at the absurdity of the scarecrow body of the old man and yet retains his dignity and seriousness. The laughter is drowned in the noble music announcing the voyage to the holy city of Byzantium. Sailing to Byzantium is pertaining to the problem of an old age. Byzantium is a symbol for unity and perfection. Yeats sailing to Byzantium is pre-eminently a personal poem which deals with the problem of old age which often haunted him. An old man feels miserable in this world of reality, being unfit for the sensual life. Yeats therefore finds comfort by escaping to the city of Byzantium which represents a world of art, a world which is eternal and timeless. The poet in Sailing to Byzantium describes an uncongenial Country in the beginning as we look at that country through his eyes. “That is no country for old men.” The contemplation of monuments of unageing intellect alone can justify in old man‟s existence and which cannot be produced in modern world. Sailing to Byzantium has strongly influenced the minds and hearts of the readers. It has sharpened their sense of the seriousness and reality of the motivations of creative minds. It is a poem which redirects our attention to the basic choices of our lives, and to the way in which these choices affect our perspectives. The present study focuses on Yeats‟s poem Sailing to Byzantium as an antidote for an old man‟s liberation from the sensual world. It also highlights the chaotic modern times, symbols used in the poem, symbolic significance to Byzantium and Yeats‟s glorification of art.