Mythical Symbolism in Sailing to Byzantium by W. B. Yeats

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 Mythical Symbolism in Sailing To Byzantium by W. B. Yeats

        Yeats was one of the most important of the modern poets, who exerted a great influence on his contemporaries as well as successors. He was born in Ireland in 1865, but for greater part of his life he lived in England. We can even see in his works the yearning for a visit to his native land.

        He was a Celt and never reconciled to Anglo-Norman habits and way of thinking; something of an artistic bohemian, not even well read in the best literature, steeped in prejudice and vanity. So although England was to offer best scope for his genius, he rarely felt it important to mix himself in the stream of its life. This abstention suited his temperament. “He was at heart a dreamer, a visionary fascinated by folk-lore, balladry and the superstitions of the Irish peasantry. Like them he believed in fairies, gnomes and demons, in the truth of the dream and in the personal immortality” (Balachandran 221).

        His early poem of which “The Wanderings of Ossian”, published in 1889, is typical and have a Celtic remoteness in them. His active interest in Irish politics and the Irish culture revival and disappointment in his love for beautiful Maud Gonne brought changes in Yeat’s poetic temperament. He was awarded the Noble Prize for literature in 1923. Volumes like “The Wind Among the Reeds”, “In the Seven woods”,“The green Helmet and other poems”, “Responsibilities”, “The Tower”, “The Wind Swans at Coole” are some of his famous works.

        Yeats before writing the poem had done a systematic study of the Byzantium art and history. Byzantium is the old name of Constantinople or Istanbul which was the capital of the Roman Empire. This city was quite famous for his art and mosaic work and golden enamelling. However in this poem it is no real city but a country of mind, a place out of time and nature, a world of art and philosophy. For Yeats Byzantium represents eternity, a paradise free from the cause of growth and decay. The artist finds permanence in this place through his art and can remain free of the distortion caused by age and hard work. Wilson says, “Sailing to Byzantium symbolizes a mental orientation, a psychological change from a mentality which values the pleasures of sexuality and flesh, to one which values things of the mind, the spirit and the soul.”

        “The Tower’s” opening poem “Sailing To Byzantium” is a good example of his explicit ideas. Yeats wrote “Sailing To Byzantium” after “A Vision”, hence we must keep in mind the symbolic system of moon explained in “A Vision”. Byzantium may also have a biblical allusion as it symbolises ‘Eden’ on earth and ‘New Jerusalem’, it might also mean his longing to see Ireland. There is a reference to the creation as mentioned in “Genesis” (can be taken as a myth according to literature). Here the two mythic symbols ‘Byzantium’ and ‘sailing’ connects it with the mythical lunar system of Yeats, “where the poem coincides with the point of view of a place of life after death to a visitor as a spirit. It also coincides with that age of human where there was a spiritual quest” (Yeats 183). According to the symbolic poetic of evocation and imaginary by French Symbolism myth of the fall of man, Yeats, now old is seeking to realise his aim: the quest, the poetic highest aim- eternal and immortal art.