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Death And Death In William Butler Yeat's Sailing To Byzantium

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In this essay, I am going to compare the theme of Byzantium in “Sailing to Byzantium” and “Byzantium”, a later version of the former poem. Both poems are similar because they are about escaping a secular world to join a kingdom of artistic permanence, but the greatest difference between the two is that “Sailing to Byzantium” is more focused on the voyage whereas “Byzantium” is a representation of an ideal state of existence. Since each poem is substantial enough to stand on its own as a work of art, I will first analyze “Sailing to Byzantium” and after that, “Byzantium”, making a comparison of the two poems. In discussion of William Butler Yeat’s “Sailing to Byzantium”, one will come across the theme of death and aging - and indeed growing old, the passage of time, and fear of death continue to be a great, universal concern to us human beings. The physical inevitability of death contrasted with the vitality of the “soul” is captured in the poem “Sailing to Byzantium”, which expresses the speaker’s wish to be immortalized “into the artifice of eternity”. “Sailing to Byzantium” paints the image of an aged man as worn and tattered, stagnant and tied down by the slow decay of the physical composition; a rather bleak and dreary image that is juxtaposed by the bursting vivacity of the soul. Nevertheless, the poem does reflect Yeats’ attitude in later life as he grows more concerned about the approach of death and whether or not he has led a meaningful life, reflected through his

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