Sailing to Byzantium (1926) by William Butler Yeats is one of the most remarkable poems in The Tower, a celebrated collection of poems published in 1929. The poem is notable in part because of its high content suggestive and ambiguous language, which lends itself to multiple interpretations. For example, many critics of the poem offer radically different readings of the poem's conclusion. Carol Morgan, a contemporary critic of Yeats, argues that the poem's form offers insight into the speaker's fate. He states that a comparison of the rhyme scheme in the first and last stanzas reveals that the speaker finds salvation in Byzantium. He argues that the last stanza, unlike the first, employs a series of complete triple rhymes to suggest order and harmony in Byzantium. According to Morgan, the half-rhymes of the first stanza emphasize the “chaotic” or “natural” state of the country and the narrator's restless anxiety. In contrast, the use of full triple rhymes in the last stanza implies that such anxiety has been replaced by peaceful contentment (Morgan, Yeats: An Annual of Critical and Textual Studies, 141-142). This essay offers a radically different reading from Morgan's and bases its interpretation not only on the poem's form but also on its language and imagery. Assessing the speaker's fate in Byzantium requires analyzing Yeats's use of form, language, and imagery within individual stanzas and also comparing entire stanzas to one another. The poem's rhyming couplets, use of alliteration, repetition, ambiguity, and use of contrasting imagery suggest that Byzantium is a pretentious, static, and constricting world that causes apprehension in the speaker rather than providing salvation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay A comparison of the rhyming couplets in the first and last stanzas of the poem highlights the speaker's feelings of apprehension about Byzantium. The first two stanzas contain couplets that stand alone as rhetorical statements. In the first stanza the following couplets express the speaker's contempt for young people who despise the world of art: The young in each other's arms, the birds in the trees / Those dying generations - to their song / Caught in that sensual music every abandon / Monuments of timeless intellect In the second stanza, the speaker declares his interest in leaving the sensual world and entering the intellectual paradise of Byzantium: An old man is but a mean thing, / A tattered cloak on a stick, unless / And then sailed the seas and come / To the holy city of Byzantium. The final two stanzas of the poem, which deal exclusively with the world of Byzantium, make no such statements and are not self-contained rhetorical statements. Therefore, the form of the poem can be seen as a regression from certainty to uncertainty, which suggests that the speaker feels apprehension in Byzantium and still retains allegiance to his native Ireland. Furthermore, the speaker's alienation and apprehension in Byzantium is also conveyed by the third couplet. ambiguous language and the clever inversion of the quarto rhyme scheme of the second couplet. The third stanza ends with this couplet: He knows not what it is; and gather me / In the artifice of eternity. The ambiguity of this couplet is highlighted by the use of the nonspecific pronoun "it" rather than the more concrete word "heart" and invokes the idea of ​​alienation through the statement, "He knows not what it is." The word “artifice” in the second line of the couplet echoes the words “art” and “artificial,” thus suggesting that the artistic and artificial world of Byzantium causes feelings of alienation in the speaker. Also, the coupletThe poem's ending does not leave the reader with a positive impression of the speaker's fate, but instead reinforces the view of Byzantium as an alienating environment. Raymond Cowell, an eminent literary critic, argues that the final couplet leaves such an impression by reversing the rhyme scheme of pair two. “As a particular ironic twist, Yeats reverses the end rhymes of stanza two when he reaches the end rhymes of the last stanza. In the second stanza the speaker has "come" to Byzantium in a state of triumphant anticipation; the couplet proclaims the positive. In the fourth stanza the order is reversed and the speaker goes beyond the nobility of Byzantium, towards the future "to come" contained in the song of the bird; the couplet is broken, with the future left uncertain” (Cowell, Literary Critiques: WB Yeats, 144). The impression of uncertainty echoes the impression of uncertainty and apprehension conveyed by the last lines of couplet three, thus implying that Byzantium can neither ease the speaker's anxiety nor offer him salvation. Furthermore, the poem's language and imagery characterize Byzantium not as an ideal representation of utopia but rather as a static world devoid of energy and freedom. The linguistic vitality of the first stanza compared to the monotony of the last stanza reveals how Byzantium lacks the energy and freedom of the speaker's homeland. The first stanza contains lyrical alliteration such as "fish, meat or chicken" which conveys the enormous energy and vigor of Ireland while the last stanza is characterized by repetition of words. Furthermore, in the phrase “set yourself on the golden bough to sing,” the word “set yourself” is a passive form that contrasts sharply with the assertive, action-oriented verbs of the first stanza. The phrase also evokes an image of the speaker's helplessness, as if he does not possess the energy necessary to put himself on the branch of the tree. Byzantium is characterized not only by its lack of vigor but also by its constrictive nature. The phrase "keeping a sleepy emperor awake" implies the speaker's lack of freedom in Byzantium, as he must constantly attend to the lords and ladies of the country. In contrast, the beginning of the poem evokes numerous images of animals and Irish citizens mating and pursuing their own hedonistic desires. Yeats also uses contrasting imagery to convey Byzantium's pretentious nature as a speaker, despite his transformation into a golden bird being unable to create everlasting art. Carol Morgan states that the speaker's ability to create art in Byzantium, through her singing, is a critical factor that ultimately validates Byzantium as a destination of salvation (Morgan 144). Other critics of the poem, including T. Sturge Moore, refute Morgan's thesis and instead see Byzantium as a pretentious place that denies the speaker the ability to create lasting art. Moore bases his analysis on the opening line of the last stanza and the final line of the poem. He states that the speaker cannot sing “what has passed, or what is passing, or what is to come” if the speaker is “out of nature.” In other words, how can the speaker create lasting art if he is completely separated from life? According to Moore, “art depends on life” (Cowell 102). Yeats contrasts this image of the eternal golden bird singing of “that which is past, or which passes, or which is to come” with images of birds in the natural world to suggest that only the natural world provides a domain that fosters great art. The birds, in the poem's opening stanza, sing a sensual but transitory song enjoyed by young Irish lovers. In contrast, the golden bird sings for eternity, but its song only serves the purpose of keeping the “sleepy emperor” awake. Ironically, the speaker's art is not appreciated in a world that represents the pinnacle of classical art, thus implicating the claims of Byzantium. Here.