|
|
City of souls: Yeats's Byzantium as an imaginary place.(William Butler Yeats)(Critical essay)
- Article from:
-
West Virginia University Philological Papers
- Article date:
-
September 22, 2006
- Author:
- Lense, Edward
|
Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 2006 West Virginia University, Department of Foreign Languages. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
There are eight million stories in the naked city but no master narrative. Real cities are chaotic if not quite random, noisy and confused, immersed in what Dickens in Little Dorritt calls "the usual uproar." Imaginary cities, however, are not bound by the vagaries either of history or daily life and can take on any qualities that their creator chooses to give them. Since they come from one mind and express one sensibility, such places generally have an underlying principle that defines their nature, whether or not this is the creator's intention. In the case of "Byzantium," Yeats, haunted all his life by the mythology of pagan Ireland, managed the improbable feat of ...