Sailing to Byzantium
The speaker in this poem is referring to his country of origin which he refers to as ‘no country for aged men’. He defines the nation as full of youth and life where the young area being held in one another’s arm, the hums of singing birds from the trees and some fish which can be seen swimming in the waters .The speaker describes his sailing to Byzantium, a holy city. In his address to the sages, he hopes that their being his singing musters for his sole will consume heart. He implies that once he has been removed from the natural world, he will never again take his bodily form from a natural thing (Rainey, 309).
Yeats show a lot of characteristics of disillusionment of modernism seen in scepticism towards the idea of the truth, a person’s sense of being disoriented within modernism and a pessimist view of current life enjoined with a consideration that the current world has turn out to be spiritually wanting and fragmented culturally. The Sail to Byzantium is the concept of art on which the poet lays emphasis on in order to cure the problems in the current life of 20th century. The poem serve as an evidence of Yeats skill of art that he uses to interpret the contemporary life (Hatice, 49). The poet uses subtle symbolism together with thought and styles that are complex. The comparison of concepts such nature versus artifice and art versus nature is obvious in the poem. A contradiction is seen in the tension between life and art in this poetry work. The poem use a lot of symbols like gyre that indicate Yeats’ philosophical belief that cycles and patterns can be used to describe everything. He uses salmons, mackerels, fowl and fish as symbols of morality and brevity of this life. The aging of the body is indicated by the use of metaphors like tattered coat that is hang on a stick , and being fastened on an animal that is dying (Lee,39).
The poet refers to Ireland from a political and personal point of view and he wishes to be to a time peace and economic success existed in Ireland. At the start of the poem, ‘that’ denotes the Ireland of the modern era. The poem depicts the movements of the speaker from his youth to old age, and the resulting shift from the Ireland Byzantium geographically, a country at its birth time as poem was being written. He feels that he doesn’t belong in Ireland since the young are caught up in sensual music and brutal. What disgusts Yeats is this allure of murder in pretence of republicanism. He may be referring to Irish Rebellion by his insinuation of young people holding one another in their arms and generations that are dying (Hatice, 49). The centre for successful civilization was Byzantium, in 6th century, and which refers to the ancient Roman city that was built by Emperor Constantine that served as the Eastern Christianity’s headquarters, a city where it was believed God existed. It was rich in culture its nature was utopian artistically. This is a metaphor for supreme forms of art or creativity. By escaping to Byzantium the speaker can run away from the conflict between desire and worn out body. The element of modernism is seen at this point when Yeats compares a body of an old man to an animal that is dying (Lee, 39).
His unending desire to move to Byzantium, a perfect land, pointe to the imperfect land that he wants to leave. An important theme of modern poetry which is degenerating and chaotic modern life is well laid out here. He alludes to how ‘monuments of intellect’ that is not aging, can be brought about by the current chaotic times. While talking about whatever is begotten, being born and dying, he shows his familiarity with modern poetry. Death, waste and decadence and mortal beings that are crumbling is a prevalent feature in the entire poem more so while being associated with old age (Rainey,309). By invoking the sages to change him, to have his heart which is sick with desire, consumed away and being fastened to an animal that is dying and have him gathered into an ‘eternal artifice’, the poet is referring to art. It is only art that is immortal.
In conclusion this poem by Yeats dives directly into a modern craziness of life. After all, with our genetic testing and medical marvels that we hold so highly every day, we cannot turn away from dealing with the fact that our bodies are just a big mass of flesh and bones. This emphasis of on modernism as compared to the past is seen in the poet’s tendency to refer to the past life being better than the contemporary life. In fact, implies that the only thing that can make one to be useful in old age is having their soul clapping their hands and singing. Modernism is put clear by the use of simple language, several interpretation of metaphors political references, juxtaposition of notions and allusions.
Works cited
Lee, Oser. The Ethics of Modernism: Moral Ideas in Yeats, Eliot, Joyce, Woolf and Beckett. Cambridge University Press.2007 .37
Rainey, Lawrence. Modernism: An Anthology. Malden, Mass. Blackwell Publ. 2005.309
Hatice, Avcı. The Contribution of Romanticism to Modernism as seen in Keats, Ibsen and Yeats.2012. 42-54
