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City of souls: Yeats's Byzantium as an imaginary place.(William Butler Yeats)(Critical essay)

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From: West Virginia University Philological Papers
Date: 20060922
Author:Lense, Edward

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," ...

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