Sailing to Byzantium and Byzantium of W. B. Yeats – A Symbolical Viewpoint According to the Creation of Primal Elements

Abstract

Two well-known poems of W. B. Yeats are seen here in a specific perspective of Creation primal elements (earth, water, air, fire) by a symbolical point of view. Certainly, there are different interpretations of these poems, where symbolic point of view is fundamental. The very symbols which interpretation/ analyses focus on are sailing (travelling) and city (Byzantium). Through our interpretation we use to move forward: There is a fore text according to which author uses to construct/create a poem, being and feeling himself as a creator (author). According to this creative thought he move structurally and mentally travelling (sailing) to the city of a mystical significance, Byzantium (New Jerusalem) through which he try to evoke symbolically/poetically Revelation and be part elementarily with Creation of Bible, that is to say: he creates a poetry with a the creation/poetry aim to be structurally and ideally well ordered and harmonized as Creation is. In this point of view the Creation is as a fore text, structurally and symbolically organized, perfectly as it is a work of God. Moving through this perspective and seeing the creation as a work of Creation, aiming to be part of, it is the perplexity of the poet himself as a creator, maker (poet). This interpretation points out the interrelation of a poet (maker, creator) with the Creator/ God and the poesy (making, creation) with Creation and the role of the quest for the poet, symbolically expressed through a journey.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2012.v2n4p223