William Butler Yeats is one of the most well known poets of the Modernist era. He is considered to be the father of symbols in English Literature. He is famous for his well known poems such as “Sailing to Byzantium” , ” Byzantium” , “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” , “A Prayer for my Daughter” and others. His poems are beautifully weaved with symbols and hence symbols are used when words lack its potential to express insightful meanings and builds a bridge between a word and a meaning.
“Sailing to Byzantium” is a poem of escaping from the harsh reality of world into the spiritual and intellectual realm. Yeats expresses the condition of the society which is attached to the worldly affections and desires and he wants to escape from the reality. The symbols in the poem are intense and throws interior insights into the themes of the poem.
The “Byzantium” itself is a symbol of spiritual and intellectual realm. It is considered to be one of the famous places for its rich culture, diversity and art. The poem symbolizes as a realm of spiritual and intellectual values where other physical values of modernity has no value or shadows upon. Yeats desire to enter into its diversity so to escape and celebrate the magnificence of “unageing intellect”.
The images in the poem shrouds heavy symbolism that shows the interior reality of the society. The image of “young ” in “one another’s arms” and “birds in the trees” symbolizes the younger generation attachment to worldly desires. These desires aroused from the impact of First World War which disturbed the mental consciousness of the younger generation to enrich the moment and filled the fear of uncertainty of future catastrophe. Yeats highlight that they are “caught in that sensual music” and the “sensual music” becomes a symbol of worldly desires.
The poem shows a interior landscape of harsh realities of modern society. The “aged man” is the symbol of spiritual and intellectual values that existed since the ancient times. These values are neglected in the society and it has become like a “tattered coat upon a stick” which is a symbol of superficiality. The urgency of the spiritual and intellectual values is imbued as the symbol in the “Soul” and Yeats tries to say that the values can enter into the society unless “clap its hand and sing” and shrouds to the “tatter in its mortal dress”. The symbol of “tatter” and “mortal dress” becomes reduction to sophisticated ideals and celebrating “Monuments of its own magnificence”.
In addition to this , the allusion to the “sages” becomes a symbol of classical writers and poets who are enshrined in “God’s holy fire”. The “fire” is a symbol of light and it could mean that these old intellectual values of ancient poets and writers stand as a light or guide in “gold mosaic of a wall”. They have come to the society as a light or “holy fire ” circulating. The image of “perne in a gyre” symbolizes the circle of literary tradition from Homer to the contemporary or could symbolized the circle from the birth of Christ to the ending avalanche. Yeats years that these vortex of circle should be “the singing-masters of my soul”.
Lastly, the image of “nature” symbolizes the physical form or organic form and Yeats suggest that he will detach from any “bodily form” but will embody himself into “Grecian goldsmith” made of “hammered gold and gold enamelling”. These lines takes back to Keats “Ode on a Grecian Urn” where the beauty of its object in the urn has become immortal for ages. Hence, these lines suggest the symbolical references to immortality. Yeats alludes to the ancient Byzantium of “lords and ladies” with which he will be sitting upon the “golden boughs” to “sing” the intellectual and spiritual values “Of what is past,or passing ,or to come” which symbolizes eternity.
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