Ronchey, S. “On a Golden Bough. Bisanzio in due poesie di William Butler Yeats.” In partibus Clius. Scritti in onore di Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli. Ed. G. Fiaccadori. Naples: Vivarium, 2006, 609-23.

Two poems dedicated to Byzantium (Byzantium and Sailing to Byzantium) by W. B. Yeats are the subject of this essay, which explores with the complex web of references from classical philosophy (from Plato to Heraclitus), Christianity (the figure of Lazarus), the Middle Ages (the Antapodosis by Liutprand of Cremona, the De cerimoniis by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and other Byzantine sources.)  Recognition of these sources is fundamental to a complete and precise understanding of the two poems, as demonstrated, unfortunately, by Eugenio Montale’s translation of Sailing to Byzantium.