Sailing To Byzantium by W. B. Yeats (Analysis)

 

Sailing To Byzantium

by W. B. Yeats

(Analysis) 

Sailing To Byzantium is one of the much-discussed poems ever composed by W.B. Yeats. It is the first one of his poetic volume The Tower (1928). According to one editor, it was composed on September, 20, 1927 after the poet had suffered from great fever.

At the time he was about sixty-two years old. He was detaching himself from the world, and often studied the Upanishads and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. According to the Upanishads, a living human being consists of three things: the gross body, the subtle body, and the Atman. The gross body consists of gross matter. It is born, ages, and dies. The subtle body consists of the subtlest matter possible. It is immortal and dissolves in the elements on the last day of the universe. It stays in the human heart and is of the size of a thumb. The Atman dwells in the subtle body, and, as such, it is called the Jivatman, or the Self. Now the Self is glorious, and its glory has turned the subtle body “golden”. It is, of course, a figurative statement. So figuratively, it is said that the Jivatman (i.e., The Self) is “Hiranyagarbha,” that is, one who dwells in the golden womb. In other words, the subtle body in which the Soul dwells is called a golden city.

 

W.B. Yeats calls this golden city “Byzantium”. It is because “Byzantium” was an ancient holy city and capital of the Eastern Empire (395—1453 A.D). It was famous for its architecture, gold enamelling, gold mosaics, gold ornaments, and golden buildings.

Yeats employs “Byzantium” as a symbol for the city of the Soul in his living human form. He has given his poem the title, Sailing To Byzantium. He implies that he has been sailing across the seas of worldly thoughts, desires, etc., with a view to arriving at the city of Byzantium. He means that he has been voyaging toward the realization of the Self. He wants to make his Soul study the glory of its own nature:

And therefore I have sailed the seas and come

To the holy city of Byzantium.

Sensual life may be called a country of procreation, sensual activities, sensual desires, etc. It is not fit for old men in that sense-the organs of the old grow weak and incapable of bringing sensual pleasures. It is a life of the young only. For young men and women are in one another’s arms because of sexual urges. Young birds burst into song in sexual heat, and mate in trees. River-falls are full of copulating salmon fish and their eggs. Sea-coasts teem with young, mating, mackerel fish. In brief, fish, animal, birds, or rather all young mortal creatures are busy in procreation throughout their youth. And they take to heart and get attached to the eggs or young ones they give birth to. They are very unhappy when their young ones, children die, or their eggs are destroyed. Sensual music charms young human beings to such an extent that they do not pay any attention to the upliftment of the Soul. But an old man is a useless thing for sensual life. He is like a scarecrow unless his Soul sings hymns in praise of God’s glory. It has to sing hymns to expiate for its sins committed by means of its gross body. The fact is that the Soul does not, and cannot, sing hymns. A sin is a Samskara on the mind, of a sinful act. To expiate for its sins, it has to realize its own glorious nature. It has to make self-realization in yogic Samadhi. Once it has realized its own divine glory, it transcends the walls of its body mind prison and shines over it as the sun of its physical and mental universe. That is why the poet has given up the world, and has come to see “the holy city of Byzantium.” He means that he has come to the stage of attaining to yogic Samadhi.

Then seated on his yogic Samadhi, the poet prays to the powers of his bodily senses to withdraw themselves into his mind, shine upon his Soul, and burn up all the worldly ignorance enveloping it. It is sick with desire. Being shut up in the body-mind prison, it does not know its real nature. Finally, the poet prays to those powers to lead him into still Samadhi in which his Soul, may be conscious of being eternal and self-shining. Once he is in the state of still Samadhi, he shall not come out of it for any kind of pleasure or worldly possession. On the other hand, he shall go ahead in his Samadhi, and free his Soul from the meshes of body-mind nature completely. Then his Soul shall scan the Samaskaras of his present life and also those of his past. It shall also see the prospective effects of all those Samaskaras in future.

The poem is characterized by Upanishadic symbolism. As has been said, “Byzantium” is the symbol of the city of the Soul—the subtle body. Its departments of the Indriyas, the Manas, and the Buddhi have been represented as “Monuments of unageing intellect.” The powers of bodily sense-organs have been represented as “sages standing in God’s holy fire.” “The seas” is a symbol of countless desires, hopes, etc. In the last stanza, “a drowsy Emperor” is the Soul as the Emperor of the body- mind universe. “Lords” are the Manas and the Buddhi, and the “ladies” are the Indriyas in the subtle body.

The poetic feeling is genuine and sincere. It is light at the beginning—something of a thought. But gradually it gets warmer and warmer, and rises to the height of an emotion. Its flow is like that of a stream of thoughtful ideas, which is well-controlled. The imagery of the poem is fresh and striking. In the opening stanza, we are made to perceive young men and women, fish, flesh, and fowl, all in the heat of procreation. In the second stanza, we perceive a scare-crow—’a tattered coat upon a stick.” Then we see the human body as “a mortal dress”, an image from the Gita. In the third stanza, we see “the gold mosaic of a wall”, and also a hawk [called pern] coming back to its master on the ground, flying round and round. In the last stanza, we see the Soul set upon the bough of a golden tree in the palace- court of Byzantium.

The poem is made up of 32 lines. They have been divided into four stanzas of eight lines each. The metre of the verses is iambic pentameter. Each line consists of five iambic feet, ten syllables. Some verses also have extra syllables at the end for the sake of rhyme. Each stanza has been concluded with a rhymed couplet. The flow of verses is highly rhythmic and their spirit is lyrical to the last degree. There are alliterations, rhymes, half- rhymes, and cadences of stringing nature, as in the following.

Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all the summer long

Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.

The rhythm is iambic but characterized by a variety of falling rhythm. The diction is simple but urban and literary. Polysyllabic words are few Monosyllabic and bisyllabic ones are in the majority. The style of the poem is romantic and symbolistic. It is characterized by maturity, a symbolistic tendency, and great poetic skill.

To conclude, ‘Sailing To Byzantium’ is one of Yeats’ most celebrated poems. It was looked upon as difficult and obscure of its personal symbolism, in 1960’s. But Indian scholars have discovered the key to open its symbolism. The key is the Upanishadic philosophy and Patanjali’s views on yogic Samadhi. Interpreted with reference to the philosophy of Upanishads and Yoga-Sutra, it gives us clear meaning and weighty, systematic, thoughts. The poem also emerges as a poetic gem of the first water. It also contributes to Yeats’ greatness as a poet of Upanishad philosophy and Yoga Darshan.