Sailing to Byzantium | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 8 pages of analysis & critique of Sailing to Byzantium.

Sailing to Byzantium | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 8 pages of analysis & critique of Sailing to Byzantium.
This section contains 2,099 words
(approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Stanley M. Holberg

SOURCE: Holberg, Stanley, M. “Sailing to Byzantium’: A New Source and a New Reading.” English Language Notes 12, No. 2 (December 1974): 112-16.

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 form as Grecian goldsmiths make / Of hammered gold and gold enammeling,” Yeats wrote: “I have read somewhere that in the Emperor's palace at Byzantium was a tree made of gold and silver, and artificial birds that sang.”1 In their efforts to define that vague “somewhere,” scholars have turned to historical accounts of the palace of the Emperor Theophilus (829-842). Elder Olson cites, in addition to certain Latin writings, Gibbon's Decline and Fall and George Finlay's History of the Byzantine Empire.2 James A. Notopoulos suggests two tenth-century accounts and two that were published during Yeat's lifetime. Diehl's Manuel D'Art...

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This section contains 2,099 words
(approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Stanley M. Holberg
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Critical Essay by Stanley M. Holberg from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.