BOATS AGAINST THE CURRENT — W. B. YEATS (SAILING TO BYZANTIUM AND BEYOND)

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the journey taken in W. B. Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium” as a time voyage both backwards and forwards whereby a circle of completion is attained. Completion being the fulfilment of meaning, an achievement of answers that are of paramount importance to the traveller. Additionally, the paper features chiefly an analysis of the questions of what motivates the choice of destination and why sailing has been selected as a method of time-travelling. А juxtaposition is offered between the poem in question and other literary works by writers contemporary to and preceding Yeats.