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Sailing to Byzantium.
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In the following essay, Allen surveys the critical analyses of “Sailing to Byzantium.”
In 1962, A. Norman Jeffares published an article, “Yeats's Byzantine Poems and the Cr...
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In the following essay, McFarland considers the influence of George Herbert's work on “Sailing to Byzantium.”
Although George Herbert is named in A Vision, very little has been sa...
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In the following essay, Sarang analyzes the contrasting symbolism in Yeats's Byzantium poems.
O where is the garden of Being that is only known &...
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In the following essay, Pruitt contends that “Sailing to Byzantium” and “The Tower” not only discuss the issue of aging, but asserts that each poem is “part of a pro...
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In the following essay, Empson examines earlier drafts of Yeats's Byzantium poems to gain insight into the work.
I had a short article on “Sailing to Byzantium” and “Byzant...
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In the following essay, Levine determines the influence of art historian John Ruskin's work on Yeats's Byzantium poems.
Reading the numerous source studies of Yeats's Byzantium po...
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In the following essay, Murphy underscores the importance of historical events in Byzantium as they relate to Yeats's poems.
While both Yeats's “Sailing to Byzantium” and h...
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In the following essay, Lense investigates the unique aspects of “Sailing to Byzantium.”
Poetry concerns itself with the creation of Paradises. I use the word in the plural for there are...
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In the following essay, Allen finds parallels in imagery and meaning between Yeats's “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” and “Sailing to Byzantium.”
… I must leave m...
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In the following essay, Kerbaugh speculates on Yeats's arrangement of “Sailing to Byzantium” and “The Tower” in his poetry collection, The Tower.
The common subject ...
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In the following essay, Allison suggests a lecture by his father, John Butler Yeats, in 1906 as a possible source for the last line of “Sailing to Byzantium.”
The source of the last line...
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In the following essay, Steinman submits Shakespeare's King Lear as the origin for the bird imagery in “Sailing to Byzantium.”
In “The Circus Animals' Desertion,...
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In the following essay, Notopoulos considers the impact that Byzantine imagery and history had on Yeats's poetry and notes the Platonic elements in “Sailing to Byzantium.”
The poe...
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In the following essay, Sullivan interprets “Sailing to Byzantium” as a yearning for the past, a “regression to the early, non-sexual state of oral union with mother.”
In &...
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In the following essay, Monroe considers ways in which she has “sailed to Byzantium” through her experiences with the theater and literature.
“And therefore have I sailed the seas...
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In the following essay, Holberg examines a new source of inspiration for Yeat's poem.
In a note concerning the golden bird at the end of “Sailing to Byzantium,” “such a for...
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In the following essay, the author argues against the generally accepted interpretation of “Sailing to Byzantium” that the “I” of the poem considers that “engrossmen...
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In the following essay, O'Donnell considers “Sailing to Byzantium” as an attempt at escaping the decay of aging—the impermanence of mortal life—through a separate wo...
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In the following essay, Kerbaugh compares the subject matter of two of Yeats's poems.
The common subject matter of “Sailing to Byzantium” and “The Tower”—maki...
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Critical Essay by Jonathan Allison
Source: Allison, Jonathan. “The Last Line of ‘Sailing to Byzantium’: A New Source.” Yeats: An Annual of Critical and Textual Studies vol....
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In the following essay, Steinman examines how the source of Yeat's poem may have come from Shakespeare's King Lear.
In “The Circus Animals' Desertion,” W. B. Yeats a...
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In the following essay, Larissy regards “Sailing to Byzantium” as Yeats's metaphorical escape from Ireland, which he associates with youth and conflict. The author considers the p...
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In the following essay, Franke examines the symbolic unity of Yeats's two Byzantium poems, and demonstrates how the poems structurally and thematically rely on dialectical tension. In a dialect...
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In the following essay, poet-scholar Baker examines the symbolism of Byzantium, suggesting that for Yeats, Byzantium “stands primarily for modes of expression in which conscious design supersed...
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In the following essay, Ellman examines the poem's history, dramatic structure, and symbolism, and shows how the poem builds upon Yeats's earlier work and experiences.
In ‘Sailing...
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In the following essay, Gwynn explores the multiple meanings of Byzantium in “Sailing to Byzantium,” “Byzantium,” and A Vision, and identifies sources as diverse as Gibbon&...
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In the following essay, the author refutes the interpretations of the poem as magical rather than religious and as an assertion of immortality through art as “fabricated thing,” and sugg...
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In the following essay, Bradford examines Yeats's creative process by comparing early and later drafts of Yeats's “Sailing to Byzantium.”
1. Background
Yeats's inter...
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Critical Essay by L. C. Parks
Source: Parks, L. C. “The Hidden Aspect of ‘Sailing to Byzantium.’ Études Anglaises 16, no. 4 (October-December 1963): 333-44.
In the followin...
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In the following essay, Jeffares identifies geographical, historical, literary, and religious sources and allusions found in “Sailing to Byzantium.”
Yeats's change of style and hi...
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Critical Essay by David Eggenschwiler
Source: Eggenschwiler, David. “Nightingales and Byzantine Birds, Something Less Than Kind.” English Language Notes 8, no. 3 (March 1971): 186-91.
In...
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Critical Essay by James Lovic Allen
