Key Facts

• Writer: William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)
• Original Title: Byzantium
• Source: Inspired by Yeats' earlier poem, Sailing to Byzantium
• Written Time: 1930
• Published Date: 1933, in the collection The Winding Stair and Other Poems
• Form: Lyrical poem, free verse with irregular rhyme
• Genre: Symbolist poetry, philosophical poem
• Tone: Mysterious, reflective, mystical
• Point of View: First-person
• Total Lines: 40 lines
• Total Part: 5 stanzas (each with 8 lines)
• Setting: 

• Time Setting: Timeless, representing a spiritual realm beyond life and death
• Place Setting: Byzantium (modern-day Istanbul), envisioned as a spiritual and artistic paradise detached from the mortal world