Open Access'Sailing' to 'Byzantium'
Author(s) -
Előd Pál Csirmaz
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the anachronist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2063-126X
pISSN - 1219-2589
DOI - 10.53720/ftvl8790
Subject(s) - judgement , meaning (existential) , poetry , structuralism (philosophy of science) , literature , mode (computer interface) , philosophy , linguistics , history , epistemology , art , computer science , operating system
While William Butler Yeats's "Sailing to Byzantium" is often described as "less complex" than "Byzantium," the differences between the two poems appear to have rarely been considered on levels other than meaning or referents. This essay aims to unearth a basic textual difference which may account for the above judgement with the help of a framework rooted in structuralism and influenced by the theories of Alexander A. Potebnja. The analyses of the two poems allow the conclusion that while "Byzantium" can be regarded as a symbolic text, "Sailing to Byzantium" approximates that mode of writing without being entirely controlled by it.