This paper examines W.B. Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium” (1927)
and William Blake’s “London” (1794) from a deconstructive critical
perspective. Though the two poems belong to two different ages in the
history of English poetry—the former is modern
while the latter
romantic—both can be quintessential examples of deconstructive
criticism.
The paper begins by discussing the meaning and significance of
deconstruction in modern critical theory. It reveals to the reader an
overview of deconstruction as a theory of reading texts. The paper,
moreover, proceeds to examine how deconstruction can illuminate the
above-mentioned poems by analysing their verbal contradictions in terms
of meaning and structure. Under the scrutiny of deconstruction, these
characteristics ultimately uncover the instability of literary language and
meaning. This deconstructive reading of the two texts will allow the
reader to gain a better understanding not only of the two poems but also
of deconstruction as a literary theory.
