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Overview
“Sailing to Byzantium” is a poem by the Anglo-Irish poet William Butler Yeats
. Written in 1926 and first published the following year in the book October Blast, the poem recounts a metaphorical journey of spiritual transformation. The speaker is an aging man who longs to relinquish his ailing body and find salvation in what he calls “the artifice of eternity” (line 24). That is, he seeks spiritual truth in the realm of art. The poem remains well known today primarily through its famous opening line, which has provided the title for numerous short stories and novels, including Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel No Country for Old Men.Read a summary & analysis, an analysis of the speaker, and explanations of important quotes from “Sailing to Byzantium.”
