“Byzantium”

'Byzantium' is a symbolic poem that started life as a note in the diary of W.B. Yeats in 1930. He'd
long been an admirer of Byzantine art and culture and wanted to combine this passion with his belief
in the spiritual journey of the artistic human soul.

The unpurged images of day recede;

The emperor’s drunken soldiery are abed;
Night resonance recedes, night-walkers' song
After great cathedral gong;
A starlit or a moonlit dome disdains
All that man is,
All mere complexities,
The fury and the mire of human veins.

The first stanza of ‘Byzantium’ presents the night view of the place. As night emerges, the
unpurged images or the human activity recedes. Also, the drunken soldiers of the emperor have
gone to sleep. By the time the sound of the gong of the great Cathedral (the church of St. Sophia,
the center of Byzantine) is heard, even the sounds of the night and the songs of the nightwalkers
(prostitutes) fade. All these scenes indicate that it is the late hours of the night, he is describing. The
“drunken soldiers” and “night-walkers” indicate the poet’s disappointment over the degrading cultural
and social values that are addressed in most of Yeats’s poems. Further, the second part of the
stanza comments on the insignificant life of the human. The moonlit or starlit dome of the cathedral,
suggests that human life is filled with “complexities” caused mainly by the “mire of human veins”.

Before me floats an image, man or shade,

Shade more than man, more image than a shade;
For Hades' bobbin bound in mummy-cloth
May unwind the winding path;
A mouth that has no moisture and no breath
Breathless mouths may summon;
I hail the superhuman;
I call it death-in-life and life-in-death.

In the second stanza of the ‘Byzantium’, the poet talks of the vision or the image that appeared in
front of him. He wonders if it is a man or a shade. As he looks further, he realizes it to be a shade
more than a man; an image more than a shade. The verb “float “makes it clear that the image isn`t
moving but simply carried away by the wind, confirming it to be a ghost or spirit. For, Hade’s bobbin
– the dead people wound in “mummy-cloth” – takes the winding path to reach him. Further, the next
lines describe them to be with no “moisture” or “breath” and “dry-mouthed”.
Yeats has used the “mummy-cloth” as a symbol of human experiences and periods of aging and
death. The cloth wound around indicates the complexities of life a soul carries around after death to
be unwounded before entering the afterlife. A similar idea is presented by the poet in his other poem
‘All Soul’s Night’ published in 1920. The poet addresses those dead people as “superhuman” for
they are free from the earthly curbs. Further, the poet employed “chiasmus,” a rhetorical device to
reveal the contrasting perspective on death. Those alive on earth may think it to be an end of life,
but from a spiritual perspective, it is the beginning of new life. The use of “me” in this stanza gives
more personal subjectivity to the poem.

Miracle, bird or golden handiwork,

More miracle than bird or handiwork,
Planted on the starlit golden bough,
Can like the cocks of Hades crow,
Or, by the moon embittered, scorn aloud
In glory of changeless metal
Common bird or petal
And all complexities of mire or blood.

In the third stanza of ‘Byzantium,’ the poet sees something that looks like a miracle. He sees a
golden bird or bird sculpture placed on the starlit golden bow. The poet here refers to the art and
architectural beauty Byzantine is famous for. He calls it a miracle for it was more than a bird or a
handiwork. It seems to be crowing like the cocks of Hades, the city of the dead, and ghosts. In its
glory of “changeless metal”, the state of immortality, it scorns those “birds of petals”, the mortal ones.
The bird image serves as a paradox on the immortality gained by human handiwork. It becomes
something that is immune to the impurities and aging of human experience. The art, which is
manmade, becomes something that gives reason to human existence.

At midnight on the Emperor's pavement flit

Flames that no faggot feeds, nor steel has lit,
Nor storm disturbs, flames begotten of flame,
Where blood-begotten spirits come
And all complexities of fury leave,
Dying into a dance,
An agony of trance,
An agony of flame that cannot singe a sleeve.

The fourth stanza of the poem details what the poet has witnessed in the city at midnight. At midnight
on the Emperor’s pavement, a fire appears. It is neither fed by fuel sticks nor started by striking a
piece of iron against a flintstone. They look like self-generated flames, one arising out of another. It
is miraculous in nature for even storms can not quench them. The blood-begotten spirits (according
to medieval belief spirits are begotten of blood) come to be removed from all their impurities and
earthly passions. “Blood-begotten” spirits can also be interpreted as the spirits of those who died
during the world war and the civil war in Ireland. The spirits undergo a “dance” of “trance” in this
mystical agonizing fire, yet can burn even the sleeve. It allegorically refers to the fire of Judgment
mentioned in the bible to those impure souls.
 Astraddle on the dolphin's mire and blood,
Spirit after spirit! The smithies break the flood,
The golden smithies of the Emperor!
Marbles of the dancing floor
Break bitter furies of complexity,
Those images that yet
Fresh images beget,
That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea.

The fifth and the final stanza of the poem ‘Byzantium’, deliberate on the final process of the
spirits. Spirit after Spirit comes to ride on the dolphins, symbolically referring to the Roman beliefs
of the dead carried to the Isles of the Blessed. The golden blacksmiths of the emperor are given the
responsibility of keeping things in order. At the same time, the marbles of the dancing floor break
even the little furies of complexity for those images that beget fresh images in fire. Still, the process
of the spirits being carried on despite the sea being torn by the dolphins and the silence of the night
disturbed by the gong sound.

Themes
The major themes of ‘Byzantium’ can be “Human imperfection vs. perfectness of art” and “Terrestrial
life vs. Spiritual or afterlife”. The contrasting image of day and night symbolically presents the
contrasting life before and after death. On the whole, the poet metaphorically presents human life
as nothing and momentous, while the man-made arts remain forever.

Setting
The setting of the poem is “a night in the city of Byzantium”. The great Cathedral in the poem refers
to the church of St. Sophia, which is built in the central part of Byzantium or the Eastern part of
Rome.

“Sailing to Byzantium”
“Sailing to Byzantium,” by the Irish poet W.B. Yeats (1865-1939), reflects on the difficulty of keeping
one’s soul alive in a fragile, failing human body. The speaker, an old man, leaves behind the country
of the young for a visionary quest to Byzantium, the ancient city that was a major seat of early
Christianity. There, he hopes to learn how to move past his mortality and become something more
like an immortal work of art.
Stanza 1:
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees,
In the first stanza, the poet says that he is sailing to Byzantium from Ireland because the country is
not suitable for old people to live there. Old men are shut out from that kind of life that is available
here because life there is all physical and sensual. From this life, he is sailing to the city of Byzantium
where intellectual life is awaiting him.
That is no country for old men. They will not find that country suitable for them to live in. “That
Country” means Ireland where the old poet is living at present, from where he sails to Byzantium.
The country he has left for sailing to Byzantium is described in the remaining lines of the first stanza.
In the lines, “The young… and dies” the poet has described Ireland, the country of physical and
sensual life.
The rest of the stanza is the speaker’s explanation as to why his former country is not a welcoming
place for those who are older. In the second line, Yeats writes, “The young/ In one another’s arms,
birds in the trees.” The speaker’s former home sounds idyllic. As the young lovers are wrapped in
each other’s arms, the birds are singing in the trees. It means in the country, young people enjoy
the pleasures of love.

—Those dying generations—at their song,

The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Here, the speaker seems to be commenting on the creatures who inhabit his former land. Instead
of concentrating on the things that will last forever, they instead only enjoy what is right in front of
them at any given moment.
The natural imagery of the previous lines continues as the speaker details all of the beautiful
creatures that are in his former home. Here, the speaker bitterly tells that all of these creatures will
one day grow old, as well. Birds, fish, and all other creatures lead an animal, physical life which is
spent in procreation. All kinds of creatures are born, they indulge in sex, and they procreate and in
due course die. They do not lead intellectual and artistic existence. Therefore, all the creatures of
that Country lead animalistic, physical life spent in procreation. All kinds of creatures there are born,
procreate and then die.

Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long

Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
The waterfalls of “That country” are crowded with salmon fish. Besides, the seas there are teeming
with mackerel fish. All these creatures (birds and fish) listen to sensual music and do not indulge in
intellectual or artistic activity.
In lines 7 to 8, the poet says these creatures listen to sensual music without caring for intellectual
activity, which (intellectual activity) is ageless and so of a permanent value. Great works of art never
die. Sensual music is that which appeals to the senses as distinguished from the mind or the intellect.
The intellectual achievements are supposed to be ageless and immortal and so of permanent value.

Stanza 2:
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
The second stanza is more of the same. Readers cannot dismiss the bitter tone that is present in
this stanza; Yeats’s diction is particularly telling, comparing an old man to an insignificant, small
thing. He infers that there is nothing left to an old man: he is simply a stick wearing a worn and torn
jacket. Yeats seems to be commenting here, however, that just because one is old, it does not mean
he has an old soul, for the soul of the old man is clapping and singing loudly.
Apart from that, the second stanza can be interpreted differently. Here, the poet, as an old man, is
sailing to Byzantium from Ireland. In the first stanza, he has described the country from which he is
sailing away. While, in the second stanza, the poet portrays the benefits of the country of his arrival
for an old man like him.
The poet begins by saying that an aged man is worthless. With a tattered coat upon his weak and
thin body, the old man looks like a scare-crow. In the first line of this stanza, when the poet says,
“An aged man is but a paltry thing,” he means that an aged (old) person is paltry (an insignificant
thing), while in line 10 of the poem, when he says, “A tattered coat upon a stick,” he makes use of a
metaphor, which presents old age as an old worn-out coat hung up on a bamboo pole or stick.
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
In lines 3 to 4, when he says, “Unless/ Soul clap its hands and sing,” he means to say that unless
the soul feels thrilled, claps its hands and sings a happy song, that is, a state of spiritual exaltation.
By “and louder sing/ For every tatter in its mortal dress,” he means that the more worn out his bodily
dress, the louder the soul sings.
Here, the speaker informs the reader that the more tattered in dress one is, the louder he should
sing because certainly, the aged have earned their song. Besides, a man merely old is worse off
than youth; something positive must be added. If the soul can wax and grow strong as the body
wanes with advancing years, then every step in the dissolution of the body (“every tatter in its mortal
dress”) is cause for a further increase in joy. But this can happen only if the soul can rejoice in its
power and magnificence.

Nor is there singing school but studying

Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
In this section, he says that the best music for the soul of an old man is the study and appreciation
of the grand monuments of immortal intellect. An aged man acquires some merit or value only if old
age is accompanied by a spiritual recognition by admiring the great works of art.
The soul of the old man must be strong to seek that which is neglected by youth. To do so, the older
man must sail to Byzantium, which the poet describes as the holy city of Byzantium. Byzantium is
the symbol of the ideal, aesthetic, and transformed existence, and suggests a far-off, unfamiliar
civilization where art is for its own sake and whose religion is in an exotic form.
Moreover, the couplet in the second stanza clearly announces that the speaker has left his home to
visit the “holy city of Byzantium.” Throughout its history, Byzantium, later Constantinople and then
Istanbul, has been known as a center for the arts and intellectualism. The speaker feels he will be
much more appreciated in such an area.

Stanza 3:
 O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,

The third stanza represents a shift to the most ethereal and metaphysical. Once the speaker
arrives in Byzantium, he addresses the sages or wise people, he finds there. In the first two
lines of the third stanza, the poet now appeals to the sages who stand in “God’s holy fire” and
who have thus been purged of the last remnants of sensuality. These sages look like the figures
represented in “the gold mosaic of a wall.”

Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,

And be the singing-masters of my soul.
In line 3, coming out of the holy fire shown in the mosaic is the “pern in a gyre”, which means a
column of smoke in a circular motion. The poet wants them to come out of the “holy fire” and to
descend upon him with a hawk-like movement. He wants them to become the “singing masters of
his soul,” and to purify his heart. In other words, to teach him to listen to his spiritual music as
distinguished from the sensual music.

Consume my heart away; sick with desire

And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
The last half of the third stanza continues this thought. By “And fastened to a dying animal,” he
means that his heart is tied to a dying body and does not know or comprehend its reality. By “sick
with desire,” he means that his heart is sick as it is full of the dross of earthly desires. The speaker
admits here that he feels lost and “sick with desire.” The ostracizing he experienced in his former
home has sickened his heart, and he is begging the wise sages to cleanse him. He begs for
immortality, longing to live and be appreciated forever.
Moreover, the poet has yet not been able to get rid of his sensual desires which still cling to him. He,
an aged man on the verge of death, is unable to understand his reality. Only those sages can purge
his heart of all impurity, and give him the permanence that great objects of art possess.

Stanza 4:
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
In stanza four, the speaker makes his pronouncement: he wants to forego his body and live forever,
immortalized the way the Greeks would have intended: through their art. Here, the poet presents
his dislike for the physical and sensual life in Ireland; in the second stanza, he talks about what of
spiritual life the poet would lead in the golden city of Byzantium, and the third stanza is addressed
to the sages of Byzantium to make his soul purged of all remaining sensuality. But in this last stanza
of the poem, the poet says what kind of form he would like to be born in his re-birth.
Once he has renounced his early body, he would not like to be reborn in the same or any other
earthly shape. He will reject all physical incarnations because all living beings are subject to mortality
and death. Therefore, the speaker announces that he would like to take his form in Grecian urns or
enameling, handcrafted by goldsmiths, so that an emperor could spend his nights admiring him in
the artwork. The past, present, and future, will all be one because the speaker will live for eternity.

To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;

Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
He would like to be in the shape of a golden bird, the kind of bird which Grecian goldsmiths are
believed to have designed for the pleasure of an emperor. As a golden bird, a work of art, he would
be beyond decay or death and would therefore be unlike the “dying generations” of real birds
mentioned in the first stanza.
As a golden bird, he will be placed on a golden bough and will appear to be singing songs of all
times, the past, the present, and the future, to an audience of the lords and ladies of Byzantium. In
the shape of a singing golden bird, his song will be that of spiritual ecstasy which will be shown by
the soul “clapping its hands and singing.” Moreover, he will be surrounded, not by young lovers and
other animal creatures of the sexual cycle but by an audience that would be elegant and abstract.
In Byzantium, he will have no age, past, present, or future.

Themes
• The main theme in the poem is the immortality of art. The poet sails to Byzantium
because he can enjoy and study the monuments of great art there and his soul can learn
singing (learn how to be happy and immortal) by studying these works of art.
•
The second theme is the mystical experience. The speaker decides to make a journey to
Byzantium because his soul can be purified there in order to be immortal or to be
godlike.