Back from my recent trip to Ireland I wanted to set down some of my photos against a reading of Sailing to Byzantium. Fortunately, I think I had enough material to cover the first two sections of the poem. In the third and fourth sections of the poem, Yeats takes us on a speculative journey into the immortal realm of spirit. In contrast with Ireland we are presented with the static, timeless, world of Byzantium.
A trip to the National Gallery this week was almost fruitless. There are only two works of Byzantine art at the National Gallery and one of them is almost always out on loan. Someone on the staff, however, assisted me by producing a list of museums in D.C. and sure enough, the Dumbarton Oaks Museum in upper Georgetown was noted for having a specialized collection of Byzantine art. A short bike ride across town and I found enough material for the last two sections of the poem.