In the following essay, the author argues against the generally accepted interpretation of “Sailing to Byzantium” that the “I” of the poem considers that “engrossment in poetry is the only, but a sufficient, recompense for the privations of old age,” and against the critical approach of paying “as little attention as possible to the emotional content of literature and to our emotional responses to it.”

In the following essay, Bradford examines Yeats's creative process by comparing early and later drafts of Yeats's “Sailing to Byzantium.”

Source: Parks, L. C. “The Hidden Aspect of ‘Sailing to Byzantium.’ Études Anglaises 16, no. 4 (October-December 1963): 333-44. In the following essay, the author shows that “the form of ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ closely follows the form of a Rosicrucian initiation into an ideal order of reality” and that “by means of this poem, Yeats achieves his lifelong goal: a fusion of his esthetic with an occult idealism.”

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's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Grimm's fairy tales, and Shakespeare's King Lear.

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 dialectical perspective, the author argues, the distinctions between things break down as all forms flow beyond their boundaries and interpenetrate their opposites.

In the following essay, Kerbaugh compares the subject matter of two of Yeats's poems.

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 supersedes natural florescence.” Baker maintains that Yeats uses the idea of Byzantium to argue that consciously-produced culture endures whereas nature-and ourselves-grow old and pass away.

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 poem to be influenced by Asiatic literary journeys by Byron, Blake, Keats, as well as by historical accounts of early Celtic experiences in Constantinople.

In the following essay, Jeffares identifies geographical, historical, literary, and religious sources and allusions found in “Sailing to Byzantium.”

Source: Eggenschwiler, David. “Nightingales and Byzantine Birds, Something Less Than Kind.” English Language Notes 8, no. 3 (March 1971): 186-91. In the following essay, the author argues that Yeats's bird of “hammered gold” in “Sailing to Byzantium” and Keats's nightingale represent more “different ideals of art” than prevailing criticism suggests.

In the following essay, Holberg examines a new source of inspiration for Yeat's poem.

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 suggests instead that Byzantium is Yeats's “devoutly religious version of the New Jerusalem” where “the poet, the 'dying animal,’ is primarily concerned, not with the art, but with the spiritual life visibly represented by the art.”

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.

Source: Allison, Jonathan. “The Last Line of ‘Sailing to Byzantium’: A New Source.” Yeats: An Annual of Critical and Textual Studies vol. 8, Richard J. Finneran, pp. 319-21. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 1990. In the following essay, Allison examines the source for the last line of Yeats's poem.

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 world of art.

In the following essay, Monroe considers ways in which she has “sailed to Byzantium” through her experiences with the theater and literature.

In the following essay, Steinman examines how the source of Yeat's poem may have come from Shakespeare's King Lear.