“Byzantium” Introduction

• Read the full text of “Byzantium”

“Byzantium” Summary

“Byzantium” Themes

• 

  Art, Transcendence, and Immortality

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-40
• 

  The Relationship Between the Body and the Soul

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-40

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Byzantium”

• Lines 1-4

  The unpurged images ...
  ... great cathedral gong;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  A starlit or ...
  ... of human veins.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  Before me floats ...
  ... the winding path;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  A mouth that ...
  ... death-in-life and life-in-death.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  Miracle, bird or ...
  ... of Hades crow,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-24

  Or, by the ...
  ... mire or blood.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-27

  At midnight on ...
  ... begotten of flame,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 28-32

  Where blood-begotten spirits ...
  ... singe a sleeve.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 33-37

  Astraddle on the ...
  ... furies of complexity,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 38-40

  Those images that ...
  ... that gong-tormented sea.

  

  

  

  

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“Byzantium” Symbols

• 

  The Golden Bird

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 17-24: “Miracle, bird or golden handiwork, / More miracle than bird or handiwork, / Planted on the starlit golden bough, / Can like the cocks of Hades crow, / Or, by the moon embittered, scorn aloud / In glory of changeless metal / Common bird or petal / And all complexities of mire or blood.”
• 

  Byzantium

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-8: “The unpurged images of day recede; / The Emperor's drunken soldiery are abed; / Night resonance recedes, night-walkers' song / After great cathedral gong; / A starlit or a moonlit dome disdains / All that man is, / All mere complexities, / The fury and the mire of human veins.”
  • Lines 25-32: “At midnight on the Emperor's pavement flit / Flames that no faggot feeds, nor steel has lit, / Nor storm disturbs, flames begotten of flame, / Where blood-begotten spirits come / And all complexities of fury leave, / Dying into a dance, / An agony of trance, / An agony of flame that cannot singe a sleeve.”
• 

  The Shade

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 9-16: “Before me floats an image, man or shade, / Shade more than man, more image than a shade; / For Hades' bobbin bound in mummy-cloth / May unwind the winding path; / A mouth that has no moisture and no breath / Breathless mouths may summon; / I hail the superhuman; / I call it death-in-life and life-in-death.”

“Byzantium” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Paradox

  

  

  

  

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  Where paradox appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-40

• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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  Where repetition appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “The,” “images,” “recede”
  • Line 2: “The”
  • Line 3: “Night,” “recedes,” “night”
  • Line 5: “starlit”
  • Line 6: “All”
  • Line 7: “All,” “complexities”
  • Line 8: “The,” “fury,” “the,” “mire”
  • Line 9: “image”
  • Lines 9-10: “man or shade, / Shade more than man, more image than a shade;”
  • Line 11: “Hades'”
  • Line 12: “unwind the winding”
  • Line 13: “mouth,” “no breath”
  • Line 14: “Breathless mouths”
  • Line 15: “I”
  • Line 16: “I,” “death-in-life and life-in-death”
  • Lines 17-18: “Miracle, bird or golden handiwork, / More miracle than bird or handiwork,”
  • Line 19: “starlit golden bough”
  • Line 20: “Hades”
  • Line 23: “bird”
  • Line 24: “complexities,” “mire or blood”
  • Line 26: “Flames,” “nor”
  • Line 27: “Nor,” “flames,” “begotten,” “flame”
  • Line 28: “begotten”
  • Line 29: “complexities,” “fury”
  • Line 31: “An agony of”
  • Line 32: “An agony of”
  • Line 33: “mire and blood”
  • Line 34: “Spirit after spirit,” “The smithies”
  • Line 35: “The golden smithies”
  • Line 37: “furies,” “complexity”
  • Line 38: “images”
  • Line 39: “images”
  • Line 40: “That,” “that”

• Juxtaposition

  

  

  

  

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  Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-8
  • Lines 17-24
  • Lines 28-32
  • Lines 33-37

• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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  Where allusion appears in the poem:

  • Lines 4-5: “After great cathedral gong; / A starlit or a moonlit dome”
  • Lines 17-24: “Miracle, bird or golden handiwork, / More miracle than bird or handiwork, / Planted on the starlit golden bough, / Can like the cocks of Hades crow, / Or, by the moon embittered, scorn aloud / In glory of changeless metal / Common bird or petal / And all complexities of mire or blood.”
  • Lines 25-26: “At midnight on the Emperor's pavement flit / Flames that no faggot feeds,”
  • Line 35: “The golden smithies of the Emperor!”

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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  Where alliteration appears in the poem:

  • Line 3: “resonance recedes”
  • Line 4: “great,” “gong”
  • Line 5: “dome disdains”
  • Line 6: “man”
  • Line 7: “mere”
  • Line 8: “mire”
  • Line 11: “bobbin bound”
  • Line 12: “unwind,” “winding”
  • Line 13: “mouth,” “moisture”
  • Line 14: “mouths may,” “summon”
  • Line 15: “superhuman”
  • Line 20: “Can,” “cocks,” “crow”
  • Line 23: “Common,” “bird”
  • Line 24: “complexities,” “blood”
  • Line 25: “flit”
  • Line 26: “Flames,” “faggot feeds,” “steel”
  • Line 27: “storm”
  • Line 28: “blood-begotten”
  • Line 30: “Dying,” “dance”
  • Line 32: “singe,” “sleeve”
  • Line 34: “Spirit,” “spirit,” “smithies”
  • Line 36: “floor”
  • Line 37: “Break bitter,” “furies”
  • Line 40: “torn,” “tormented”

“Byzantium” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Recede
• Unpurged
• Soldiery
• Abed
• Night-walkers
• Disdains
• Mire
• Shade
• Hades' bobbin
• Embittered
• Flit
• Faggot
• Begotten
• Singe
• Astraddle
• Smithies

• (Location in poem: Line 1: “The unpurged images of day recede;”; Line 3: “Night resonance recedes”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Byzantium”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Byzantium” Speaker

“Byzantium” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Byzantium”

More “Byzantium” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of the poem.

  • A Brief Biography — Learn more about Yeats's life and work at the Poetry Foundation's website.

  • Yeats's Influence — Listen to a radio program discussing Yeats's complex legacy as an artist and a thinker.

  • A Celebration of Yeats — Read an article about the 2015 celebration of Yeats's 150th birthday.

  • Yeats's Voice — Listen to a recording of Yeats performing his own poetry and get a feel for his sense of music.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by William Butler Yeats

  • Adam's Curse

  • Among School Children

  • An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

  • A Prayer for my Daughter

  • Easter, 1916

  • He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

  • In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz

  • Lapis Lazuli

  • Leda and the Swan

  • Sailing to Byzantium

  • September 1913

  • The Lake Isle of Innisfree

  • The Second Coming

  • The Song of Wandering Aengus

  • The Wild Swans at Coole

  • To a Shade

  • When You Are Old