One of the most captivating things about W.B.
Yeats' poetry in general and Byzantium
in particular is its rich symbolism. Symbols are essentially words which are
not merely connotative but also suggestive, evocative and emotive. Symbols
conjure before the mind's eye a host of images attached to them.
Things that are difficult to explain or are
inexpressible can be conveyed through symbols. Byzantium is indeed a laudable 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
life's agonizing existence, the poet seeks recluse and relief in death and
beyond.
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.
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 'emotional symbols'. He points out,
"there are intellectual symbols, symbols that evoke ideas alone, ideas
mingled with emotions" (49).
The deft use of these symbols in "Byzantium" enhances the reality of
the present and mystery and richness of the past.
W.B. Yeats interweaves several different
threads in "Byzantium",
thereby granting the symbols richness and intricacy. Byzantium was the capital of the eastern Wing of the Holy Roman
Empire. It was known for its works of art; especially mosaic work and gold
enameling. In W. B. Yeats' poem Byzantium
ceases to have its traditional meaning. It typifies a world of artistic
magnificence and permanence.
It is a world of immortality beyond limits of
time and space. It also denotes a place of unity; spiritual or otherwise.
Richard Ellman writes, "Byzantium
is a holy city, because it is the capital of Eastern Christendom, but it is
also Yeats's holy city of the imagination as Golgonooza was Blake's"
(257).
The resplendent transcendental world Yeats
visualizes in "Sailing to Byzantium"
now gets replaced by the images of a dreary, dark and ghostly place; full of
phantoms, 'mire and blood'.
"Byzantium"
has three key-symbols in the poem; the Byzantine dome, the golden bird perched
on the golden bough and the flames of mosaic on the Empereror's pavement. All
three put together stand for the culmination of achievement in art. Being
classic works of art they also symbolize immortality and eternity.
They are as timeless and beautiful as John
Keats Grecian urn. T.R. Henn remarks, "Byzantium…has
a multiple symbolic value. It stands for the unity of all aspects of life, for
perhaps the last time in history. It has inherited the perfection of
craftsmanship, and more than craftsmanship, perhaps, the 'mystical mathematics'
of perfection of form in all artistic creation".
The presence of the moon in the poem signifies
a lot. First of all, the moon is a symbol of rhythm and cycle of time. It also
represents the different phases in man's life. It denotes the center ground
between the earth and heaven, the light of the sun and night. It is typifies
the center point between the conscious and the unconscious. This mood is
unmistakably present in "Byzantium".
John Unterecker writes about Yeats' use of symbols:
Yeats draws his from nature, that same natural
world glorified by the romantics. Because Yeats thinks of himself as the
"Last of the Romantics," a man born out of his time, he assigns his
symbols other values than the romantics did. Made "strange" by those
values, his "masked" romantic images jolt us into a recognition of
their symbolical function (Unterecker 40).
The dome that soars high towards the sky
symbolizes the kindred meeting point of heaven and earth. Obviously, it stands
in direct contrast with 'the fury and mire of human veins'. The very fact that
the golden bird and the golden bough are made of gold, says it all. Gold is a
precious metal, it never rusts.
The rays of the Sun are also golden and
symbolize knowledge and permanence. Byzantium
is symbolic of a place that may resolve the eternal struggle between the
limitations of the physical world and the aspirations of the immortal spirit.
The golden bird is a timeless artifact like
the poem "Byzantium"
itself. The repeated use of the term 'complexities' by the poet, signifies that
there is no easy solution to the enigma of life and death, mortality and
immortality and the question of salvation or redemption.
'Mire' in the poem refers to the cycle of
birth and death and man's inherent relationship with dust and clay. It also
reminds one of the famous Biblical lines, "In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou
taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
The 'mummy cloth' clearly signifies that what
it holds inside is beyond the question of life and death. Hence, the poet seems
to liken death in "Byzantium" and sees end to human problems with the
end of physical bond with the earth. The word 'superhuman' is significant as it
has been used by the poet for a ghostly figure. It means, the likelihood of
gaining super- stature is possible only after death and not in one's lifetime.
The description of events in poems like "Byzantium" is cosmological. When
asked about the basis of such depiction, Yeats says that they are, "purely
symbolical ..... have helped me to hold in a single thought reality and
justice" (A Vision 25). He explains his theory further at another place in
"A Vision", "The whole system is founded upon the belief that
the ultimate reality, symbolized by the sphere, falls in human consciousness...
into a series of antinomies" (187). Such antinomies or contradictions do
confront the readers while trying to understand the complex structure of
obscure symbols used by Yeats in "Byzantium".
The flames of the Emperor's pavement are fuelled
by deep spiritual realization. Thus, these flames are flames of divine
purgatorial fire. The spirits brought to Byzantium
by Dolphins through the sea of time are covered with 'mire and blood'; here
blood signifies impurity or spurious state. 'Faggot' in the poem signifies
martyrdom.
This means, the impure spirits must pass
through an intensely trying spiritual fire, they must consign themselves to
this fire to emerge like a phoenix. This agonizing dance of fire, flames and
faggots would eventually turn these spirits into something pure or
'superhuman'.
Yeats deliberately stirs up a poetic passion
while describing his symbols to achieve a desired poetical effect. B.
Chatterjee's comment about the use of symbols in Byzantium is significant, "The image after image is
evoked-bird……… and these lead the reader's mind through a crescendo of horror,
through the torture and terror of hell. But is it Hell or Purgatory? Yeats'
attitude is ambivalent" (145).
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