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The Tower (book) by William Butler Yeats.
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Biography EssayWilliam Butler Yeats, probably the twentieth century's greatest poet in English and certainly one of its most complex men, was born in the Dublin suburb of Sandymount on 13 June 1865. H...
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The Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was perhaps the greatest poet of the 20th century. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923 and was the leader of the Irish Literary ...
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William Butler Yeats is widely acknowledged as the greatest poet of the twentieth century. He belonged to the Protestant, Anglo-Irish minority that had controlled the economic, political, social, and ...
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Although the reputation of William Butler Yeats rests primarily on his poetry, the drama remained one of the central concerns throughout his long career. As he explained in 1917, "I need a theatre; ...
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William Butler Yeats , probably the twentieth century's greatest poet in English and certainly one of its most complex men, was born in the Dublin suburb of Sandymount on 13 June 1865. He was the elde...
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William Butler Yeats was born into an Irish-Protestant family on 13 June 1865, in Dublin, the oldest of the four children of the artist John Butler Yeats and Susan Pollexfen Yeats. While he was a youn...
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William Butler Yeats , who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, is widely regarded as the best poet to write in English during the twentieth century. Yet from 1887 to 1905, the first third of h...
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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, 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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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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William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
Critical Essay by Harriet Monroe
