Readings from the Pavilion End

S4 Ep 7: Byzantium by W.B. Yeats


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We complete the final half of the Byzantium poems which was published a few years after Sailing to Byzantium (which can be found in Season 4 Episode 6). If in Sailing, Yeats aspires to become immortalised into a golden bird, a work of art, the spell seems to break in Byzantium as night falls agonisingly. The speaker is surrounded by eerie, nightmarish images of death-in-life and life-in-death. It is a dense and complex poem, somewhat puzzling poem that reflects Yeats' position as a romantic-modernist poet. 

Today's episode also features a preview of an upcoming cricket series where Bill reports on the 2025 test matches in Galle, Sri Lanka. 

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Readings from the Pavilion EndBy Bill Ricquier