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The best Sailing to Byzantium study guide on the planet. The fastest way to understand the poem's meaning, themes, form, rhyme scheme, meter, and poetic devices.
- Leda and The Swan
1 A sudden blow: the great wings beating still. 2 Above the...
- When You Are Old
1 When you are old and grey and full of sleep,. 2 And...
- The Second Coming
1 Turning and turning in the widening gyre. 2 The falcon...
- Leda and The Swan
- Summary
- Meaning
- Structure
- Literary Devices
- Themes
- Historical Context
- About W.B. Yeats
- Similar Poetry
‘Sailing to Byzantium’ by W.B. Yeatstells 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. While the speaker does take an actual journey to Byzantium, the reader can interpret this journe...
The speaker in ‘Sailing to Byzantium’wishes to sail and go to an imaginary world (or country), Byzantium. There the artist, almost impersonal, manages to reflect this vision of a whole people. This country had a culture so integrated as to produce art that could have the impact of a single image. The world that the poet wants to leave to sail to By...
The poem is broken into four stanzas, each containing eight lines. There is a set rhyme scheme throughout the poem of abababcc. Yeats wrote the poem in iambic pentameter, and there is a rhyming couplet at the end of each stanza. Such a rhyming scheme of stanzas is known as the ottava rima. As the poem is in iambic pentameter, it means that there ar...
This poem contains several literary devices. The title of the poem, ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ is a reference to the metaphorical journey of an old man toward the center of classicism. Besides, “Byzantium” is a metonym for the art of ancient Byzantium. Apart from that, the poem begins with a litote. There is an alliteration in the phrase, “Fish, flesh,...
Yeats presents several themes in this poem. First of all ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ presents the theme of spirituality. Here, the poet refers to a different kind of spirituality that does not center on the concept of asceticism. The speaker is more concerned with the study of artworks that elevates the intellectual capacity of the soul. Thereafter, one...
‘Sailing to Byzantium’ by W.B. Yeats was composed probably in 1927, and published in Yeats’ collection of poems titled “The Tower” in 1928. This poem fits in nicely with the literary movement in which it was written, Modernism. Modernists often rebelled against tradition and celebrated self-discovery, which this poem does. It is also interesting to...
William Butler Yeats, a proud Irishman, is known for such works as ‘When You Are Old’ and ‘The Second Coming’. Yeats was strongly influenced by his native country, and much of his poetry is a reflection of that influence. Born on June 13, 1865, at Sandymount near Dublin in Ireland, Yeats published prose called “A Vision” wherein he sought to furnis...
Here is a list of poems that are similar to the themes present in W.B. Yeats’ poem, ‘Sailing to Byzantium’. 1. Youth and Age by Samuel Taylor Coleridge – It’s one of the best-known poems of Coleridge. Here, the poet explains the difference between two stages of human life, youth, and old-age. 2. Beautiful Old Age by H. Lawrence – In this poem, the ...
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Jan 11, 2017 · To discover what else this – one of W. B. Yeats’s finest poems – has to say, we will have to look more closely at it. Below is the poem, followed by a brief summary of it, with some notes towards an analysis of its form, language, and imagery. Sailing to Byzantium. I.
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.
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.
Jul 25, 2023 · Analysis. The speaker of the poem declares at the outset of this stanza that elderly individuals have no relevance in society. The infants are cuddled up in their respective bosoms. The water is teeming with leaping fish, and the branches are brimming with bird melodies that have no idea they’re going to pass away one day.
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.
