“Sailing to Byzantium” Introduction

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“Sailing to Byzantium” Summary

“Sailing to Byzantium” Themes

• 

  Old Age and Mortality

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• 

  The Power of Art

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

• Line 1

  That is no country for old men.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 1-4

  The young
  In one another's arms, birds in the trees,
  —Those dying generations—at their song,
  The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
  Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
  Caught in that sensual music all neglect
  Monuments of unageing intellect.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  An aged man is but a paltry thing,
  A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
  Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
  For every tatter in its mortal dress,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-14

  Nor is there singing school but studying
  Monuments of its own magnificence;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 15-16

  And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
  To the holy city of Byzantium.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  O sages standing in God's holy fire
  As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
  Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
  And be the singing-masters of my soul.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-24

  Consume my heart away; sick with desire
  And fastened to a dying animal
  It knows not what it is; and gather me
  Into the artifice of eternity.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-29

  Once out of nature I shall never take
  My bodily form from any natural thing,
  But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
  Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
  To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 30-32

  Or set upon a golden bough to sing
  To lords and ladies of Byzantium
  Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

  

  

  

  

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“Sailing to Byzantium” Symbols

• 

  Gold

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• 

  Art

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• 

  Birds and birdsong

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• 

  Byzantium

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“Sailing to Byzantium” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Diacope

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Paradox

  

  

  

  

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• Parataxis

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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“Sailing to 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.

• Salmon-falls
• Mackerel
• Fowl
• Begotten
• Sensual
• Paltry
• Tattered
• Byzantium
• Sages
• Mosaic
• Perne
• Gyre
• Artifice
• Enamelling

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Sailing to Byzantium”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Sailing to Byzantium” Speaker

“Sailing to Byzantium” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Sailing to Byzantium”

More “Sailing to Byzantium” Resources

• External Resources

  • A Reading of the Poem — The Irish actor Dermot Crowley reads "Sailing to Byzantium" and discusses what it means to him.

  • Yeats's Biography — A short biography of Yeats with links to more of his poems

  • Yeats in Ireland — Some background on Yeats's strong connections to his native Ireland.

  • LitChart for "No Country for Old Men" — A guide to a book that takes its title from this poem. Why do you think McCarthy might have chosen this line?

  • Byzantine Mosaics — A Wikipedia article (with many lovely pictures) on Byzantine mosaic art.

• 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

  • Byzantium

  • Easter, 1916

  • He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

  • In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz

  • Lapis Lazuli

  • Leda and the Swan

  • 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