Sailing to Byzantium
E253984
"Sailing to Byzantium" is a celebrated poem by W.B. Yeats that meditates on aging, mortality, and the pursuit of spiritual and artistic transcendence.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Sailing to Byzantium canonical | 9 |
| Sailing to Byzantium (reprise) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2302517 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Sailing to Byzantium Context triple: [W.B. Yeats, notableWork, Sailing to Byzantium]
-
A.
In Memory of W. B. Yeats
"In Memory of W. B. Yeats" is a celebrated elegiac poem by W. H. Auden that reflects on the death, legacy, and enduring power of the Irish poet W. B. Yeats and of poetry itself in a troubled world.
-
B.
The Hollow Men
The Hollow Men is a 1925 modernist poem by T. S. Eliot that explores themes of spiritual desolation, paralysis, and the fragmentation of modern life.
-
C.
Acquainted with the Night
"Acquainted with the Night" is a somber, introspective poem by Robert Frost that explores themes of isolation, darkness, and emotional distance through a solitary nighttime walk.
-
D.
The Waste Land
The Waste Land is a landmark modernist poem by T. S. Eliot that portrays the spiritual desolation and fragmentation of post–World War I Western society through a dense collage of voices, allusions, and shifting perspectives.
-
E.
The Second Coming
The Second Coming is a British television drama written by Russell T Davies that reimagines the return of Christ in contemporary Manchester through an ordinary man who discovers he is the Son of God.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Sailing to Byzantium Target entity description: "Sailing to Byzantium" is a celebrated poem by W.B. Yeats that meditates on aging, mortality, and the pursuit of spiritual and artistic transcendence.
-
A.
In Memory of W. B. Yeats
"In Memory of W. B. Yeats" is a celebrated elegiac poem by W. H. Auden that reflects on the death, legacy, and enduring power of the Irish poet W. B. Yeats and of poetry itself in a troubled world.
-
B.
The Hollow Men
The Hollow Men is a 1925 modernist poem by T. S. Eliot that explores themes of spiritual desolation, paralysis, and the fragmentation of modern life.
-
C.
Acquainted with the Night
"Acquainted with the Night" is a somber, introspective poem by Robert Frost that explores themes of isolation, darkness, and emotional distance through a solitary nighttime walk.
-
D.
The Waste Land
The Waste Land is a landmark modernist poem by T. S. Eliot that portrays the spiritual desolation and fragmentation of post–World War I Western society through a dense collage of voices, allusions, and shifting perspectives.
-
E.
The Second Coming
The Second Coming is a British television drama written by Russell T Davies that reimagines the return of Christ in contemporary Manchester through an ordinary man who discovers he is the Son of God.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
lyric poem
ⓘ
poem ⓘ |
| author |
W. B. Yeats
ⓘ
linked to:
W.B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats ⓘ
linked to:
W.B. Yeats
|
| collection | The Tower ⓘ |
| contrastsWith | natural world of youth and sensuality ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Ireland ⓘ |
| explores |
relationship between time and eternity
ⓘ
role of the artist ⓘ tension between nature and artifice ⓘ |
| famousLine |
An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick
ⓘ
Of what is past, or passing, or to come. ⓘ Once out of nature I shall never take / My bodily form from any natural thing ⓘ |
| firstPublicationYear | 1928 ⓘ |
| firstPublishedIn | The Tower ⓘ |
| focusesOn | transition from sensual life to spiritual art ⓘ |
| hasCompanionPoem | Byzantium ⓘ |
| includedIn | many modern poetry anthologies ⓘ |
| influenced | critical discussions of art and immortality ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | Modernism ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | 20th-century literature ⓘ |
| meter | iambic pentameter ⓘ |
| numberOfStanzas | 4 ⓘ |
| openingLine | That is no country for old men. ⓘ |
| partOf | Yeats’s later poetry ⓘ |
| publisherOfFirstBookPublication |
Macmillan
ⓘ
linked to:
Macmillan Publishers
|
| rhymeScheme | ABABABCC ⓘ |
| setting | Byzantium ⓘ |
| stanzaForm | ottava rima ⓘ |
| subjectOf |
numerous literary critical essays
ⓘ
university literature courses ⓘ |
| symbol |
Byzantium as spiritual realm
ⓘ
aged man as tattered coat upon a stick ⓘ artificial bird on a golden bough ⓘ golden bird ⓘ |
| theme |
aging
ⓘ
artistic transcendence ⓘ body and soul dualism ⓘ decay of the physical body ⓘ immortality through art ⓘ mortality ⓘ search for eternal forms ⓘ spiritual transcendence ⓘ |
| tone |
contemplative
ⓘ
meditative ⓘ |
| uses |
imagery of art and craftsmanship
ⓘ
symbolism ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Sailing to Byzantium Description of subject: "Sailing to Byzantium" is a celebrated poem by W.B. Yeats that meditates on aging, mortality, and the pursuit of spiritual and artistic transcendence.
Referenced by (10)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Sailing to Byzantium
subject linked to:
That is no country for old men.
subject linked to:
That is no country for old men.
subject linked to:
The Tower (poetry collection)