He tells them that the way they are standing, the same way a figure stands in gold mosaic work of a wall. The poet addresses the sages who were standing in god’s holy fire in Byzantium. Therefore, as the poet does not find the right school to educate his soul, he travels across the seas and reaches the holy city of Byzantium. The poet says that the only difficulty is to find such a singing school where the soul can get educated, because every singing school in the country of Ireland is concerned with studying monuments of its own significance rather than caring for monuments of unageing intellect. The newly learnt song of the soul makes it to rejoice and become louder and louder as the physical powers of the old men go bad to worse. The only substitute for them is to have their soul educated in a way that it starts to clap its hands and sing out loud. The poet says that Ireland being a country not good for old men who are otherwise a petty thing decaying along with their physical powers. All these at the same time, are creatures who are subjected to death. The young lovers are in each other’s arms, the birds are in the trees and the fishes and fowls all sing one same song-the song of the senses. The dying generation of birds and young lovers celebrate are against the natural cycle of death and birth. The poet says that Ireland is not a proper place for old men because they get tangled into some sensual music which abstains them from achieving artistic ageless accomplishments of the intellect. Yeats’ whole life has been devoted to create everlasting pieces of art and he imagines that after death his soul will be a golden bird resting in the Emperor’s palace. In the poem, “Sailing to Byzantium”, the poet faces the old age and wishes to forget his decaying body and educate his soul for immortality.

According to Yeats, the Christian Byzantium which influences the scene after the fall of Rome was an ideal place of culture and wisdom. “Sailing to Byzantium” by William Butler Yeats was first published in 1928 in the collection called “The Tower.”īyzantium is the old name of Constantinople or Istanbul which was once the capital of the Roman Empire.

Byzantium william butler yeats analysis