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Byzantium is indeed Yeats attempt at bringing together aesthetics,
spiritualism, symbolism, and mysticism together on one common platform.
The effect is both revealing and enthralling. The epic exploration of the other
world brings into perspective, the question of life in death and death in life.
The poet symbolically leaves the world of limitations to usher into a world of
permanence and artistic eternity. Tired of lifes agonizing existence, the poet
seeks recluse and relief in death and beyond.
Symbolism in W.B. Yeats Byzantium
One of the most captivating things about W.B. Yeats poetry is its rich
symbolism. Symbols are essentially words which are not merely connotative
but also suggestive, evocative and emotive. Symbols conjure before the
minds eye a host of images attached to them. Things that are difficult to
explain or are inexpressible can be conveyed through symbols.
W.B. Yeats Byzantium is a highly symbolic poem. It contains variety
of symbols. While some symbols in this poem are easy to understand as they
come from W.B.Yeats stock arsenal, other are complex and obscure. The
resonant, sonorous and glittering quality of these symbols makes
Byzantium a visual and acoustic treat. W.B. Yeats writes in his essay The
symbolism of Poetry, All sounds, all colours, all forms, either because of
their preordained energies or because of long association, evoke indefinable
and yet precise emotions (46). Not all symbols that Yeats uses are
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Unterecker, John. A Readers Guide to W.B. Yeats . Thames and Hudson,
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Yeats, W.B. A Vision . New York: Macmillan, 1956.
W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) was very influenced by the French symbolist movement and he is often
regarded as the most important symbolist poet of the twentieth century. Yeats felt 'metaphors are
not profound enough to be moving,' so his poems heavily incorporate symbols as a means of
expressing abstract and mystical ideas. However, through the use of symbolism Yeats's poems
are much more dispersed and fragmented than the work of earlier poets, and therefore may at
first appear to be more difficult to understand because there is no direct (one to one)
correspondence. Instead symbols become reverberating images that provide a contemplation and
rearrangement of material things, where one must complete the meaning by filling in the gaps
with different interpretations. 'The symbolists aimed for a poetry of suggestion rather than direct
statement, evoking subjective moods through the use of private symbols, while avoiding the
description of external reality or the expression of opinion.'
Focusing on the two poems 'Sailing to Byzantium' from The Tower (1928) and 'Byzantium' from
The Winding Stair (1933) we can examine the symbols that Yeats uses to express himself and his
ideas. Firstly, the images that...
It is noteworthy to state the fact that the influence of symbolism is too vast
on later movements . The experimental techniques devised by these poets
enriched the technical repertoire of modernism , particularly the works of W
B Yeats . All symbolists tend to support the idea of a connection between the
idea of first , consciousness and the outer world and second , nature and the
spiritual world . IN this context yeats greatly admired Charles Baudelaire and
regarded him as a pivotal figure for the style .
In essence , symbolism is difficult to define . Yeats was first introduced to
the doctrine of symbolism by his friend Arthur Symons . This instruction gave
elaborate form to his verse . Symbols come to stand for the poet's emotion
and , in every way serve to make more complex the poems written . In
addition , they are able to facilitate a certain movement from the divine life
to the outer counterpart . In the light of the two byzantium poems and the
second coming , symbolism is the elemental vehicle yeats employs to
enhance those poems . Yeats idealizes byzantium as a symbol of unity in
spiritual and everyday life . Another symbol that carries throughtout the
poems is that of a bird . Yeats uses the image of a bird 'set upon a golden
bough to sing' to refer to the timlessness and spirit he craves . In the same
way that the bird is there forever , singing for all time , Yeats longs to be able
to sing similarly through his poetry .
In his 1901 essay 'Magic' , yeats writes :"I can not now think symbols less
than the greatest of all powers , whether they are used consciously by the
masters of magic , or half-unconsciously by their successors , the poet the
musician and the artist ." What is more , there is a tendency to say that Yeats
was primarily influnced by Blake into the use of symbols as well . Within the
framework of the two byzantium poems , the fish , flower and young lovers
images are apparently used by yeats to describe the transience of the
physical world he is living in . The symbol of music runs throughout yeats
poetry , providing a motif between the eternal world he yearns for and the
ephemeral counterpart . This device was extracted from the symbolists to
emphasize the utterance of the sound in the verse .
To make a long story short , Yeats dexterously highlights the technique of
symbolism to enhance his poetry . A thing which helped his works gain an
unprecedented irradiance among modern poets .