Sailing to Byzantium, William Butler Yeats - Stanley M. Holberg (essay date December 1974)
Stanley M. Holberg (essay date December 1974)
SOURCE: Holberg, Stanley, M. “Sailing to Byzantium’: A New Source and a New Reading.” English Language Notes 12, No. 2 (December 1974): 112-16.
[In the following essay, Holberg examines a new source of inspiration for Yeat's poem.]
In a note concerning the golden bird at the end of “Sailing to Byzantium,” “such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make / Of hammered gold and gold enammeling,” Yeats wrote: “I have read somewhere that in the Emperor's palace at Byzantium was a tree made of gold and silver, and artificial birds that sang.”1 In their efforts to define that vague “somewhere,” scholars have turned to historical accounts of the palace of the Emperor Theophilus (829-842). Elder Olson cites, in addition to certain Latin writings, Gibbon's Decline and Fall and George Finlay's History of the Byzantine Empire.2 James A. Notopoulos suggests...
[The entire page is 2312 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
Related Topics
