A Prayer for My Daughter Essay Sample

William Butler Yeats ( b. June 13. 1865. d. Jan. 28. 1939 ) was a famed Irish poet. prose author and playwright. In 1889 he met a adult female named Maud Gonne. who was superb. passionate and beautiful. and immediately fell in love. This love. nevertheless. was non reciprocated. His matrimony proposal was turned down several times. yet he still joined the Irish patriot cause with her because of her passion for Ireland and strong belief. In 1903. she married Major John MacBride. an Irish soldier who shared her hate for England. He eventually married George Hyde-Lees in 1917 and had two kids with her. a girl and boy. It is his girl. Anne Butler Yeats ( B. 1919 ) . that the verse form concerns. Author’s Name: William Butler Yeats Dates: 1865-1939

State of Origin: Irish republic Genres: Irish poet. playwright and prose author. Yeats was one of the greatest Englishlanguage poets of the twentieth century. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. Brief Religious Heritage or Association: Born in Dublin to an Irish Protestant household. his male parent was a clergyman’s boy who became a attorney. and so finally turned an Irish PreRaphaelite painter. His female parent came from a affluent household in the milling and transportation concern. Yeats spent his early old ages in London and Slingo. a beautiful county on the west seashore of Ireland. where his female parent had grown up and which he subsequently depicted in his verse form. In 1881 the household returned to Dublin. While he grew up as a portion of the Protestant Ascendancy. things began to switch in the 1890’s with the rise of patriotism and Catholicism. This political and spiritual turbulence deeply shaped his life and work. Although his early work drew on the influences of Spenser and Shelley. he finally became more drawn to Blake. and Celtic folklore and myth. In one of the most celebrated obsessional love personal businesss in literary history. Yeats pursued the beautiful. ardent and Catholic Irish patriot Maud Gonne. suggesting to her four different times ( but unfortunately. rejected each clip ) . She stands as a Muse to much of his authorship. To his horror in 1903 she married fellow patriot John MacBride. who was subsequently executed by the

British. Yeats became a cardinal figure in the “Irish Literary Revival” . He went on to get married Georgie Hyde-Lees. with whom he had a girl. Anne. and a boy. Michael. It is for these kids that he wrote his verse forms “A Prayer for my Daughter” and “A Prayer for my Son. ” severally. In the 1920’s he really served in the Irish senate. He owns a repute for going quite a ladies’ adult male in his older age. happening an inspiring connexion. he believed. between erotism and creativeness. While his Protestant faith and scriptural metaphors ne’er left him. he incorporated these more and more into a complicated personal system of symbols besides greatly influenced by the supernatural. Oriental mysticism and related theories such as reincarnation. Random Fact from the Author’s Life: His 1922 verse form “The Second Coming” contains some of the most repeatable and powerful lines in twentieth century poesy. many of which were used by subsequent writers as book rubrics. e. g. Slouching towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion. and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Focus Text ( s ) for Discussion Here: the verse form “A Prayer for my Daughter. ” composed June 1919 and published 1921 in his aggregation Michael Robartes and the Dancer.

As a point of involvement. Yeats’ verse form “A Prayer for my Son” is besides beautiful. and really specifically redolent of the exposure of the Christ kid. and of the might of parental love that fears non the universe. but merely – justly and genuinely – God. Suggested Edition of this Text/Biographies/Resources: The following books by Yeats scholar A. Norman Jeffares provide a helpful spectrum of his life and work: New Commentary on the Poems of W. B. Yeats ( 1984 ) ; W. B. Yeats ( 1988 ) ; W. B. Yeats: A New Biography by A. Norman Jeffares ( 2001 ) ; see besides The Life of W. B. Yeats by Terence Brown ( 1999 ) . Overall SYNOPSIS The first stanza of the verse form contrasts the peaceable slumber of his inexperienced person and beautiful girl to the raging. violent storm outside.

“Once more the storm is ululating. and half hid/Under this cradle-hood and coverlid/My kid slumbers on” ( 1-3 ) . Worried about the safety of his girl. he is afraid that he will be unable to protect her from the storm and from the hazards of the hereafter. In the following stanza he begins to conceive of a universe for her to turn up in. a universe in which he thinks she will be able to last without being harmed or threatened. He pictures the hereafter coming from the “murderous artlessness of the sea” ( 16 ) . contrasting his daughter’s artlessness with the storm. which is inexperienced person of what it does. being non-sentient. Yeats so goes on to trust that his girl has beauty. but non plenty to do a alien become enamored of her or to makeher vain: “May she be granted beauty and yet not/Beauty to do a stranger’s oculus distraught. /Or hers before a looking-glass” ( 17-19 ) .

Here he is evidently pulling upon his experiences with Maud. whom he and others thought to be “outrageously beautiful” but who had lost kindness and familiarity. Following Yeats draws upon the classical illustrations of Helen of Troy and Venus. both of whom were highly beautiful but found misfortune because of their beauty. get marrieding a “fool” ( 26 ) and a “bandy-legged smith” ( 29 ) . The following stanza trades with what Yeats determines is a really of import quality: courtesy. or kindness and civility. He so goes on to province that love is genuinely earned non by the wholly beautiful. but by those with less beauty but with more appeal and kindness. “In courtesy I’d have her chiefly learned ; /Hearts are non had as a gift but Black Marias are earned/By those that are non wholly beautiful” ( 33-35 ) . Yeats so goes on to state that he wishes his girl to go wise and merry. but to maintain both traits hidden. and unrecorded in a protected topographic point. his ideal of place. and a topographic point contrasted to the place in the gap that might non protect her from the storm.

He uses the image of a concealed tree with deep roots to depict this: “O may she populate like some green laurel/Rooted in one beloved ageless place” ( 47-48 ) . In the following stanza Yeats turns to himself. and references that his head is “dried up of late” ( 51 ) and melting off. but refuses to detest. which he believes will convey day of reckoning. saying “to be choked with hate/May good be of all evil opportunities chief” ( 52-53 ) . The undermentioned stanza is the most personal. covering with Maud. stating that although she was the prettiest adult female and was showered with gifts from “Plenty’s horn” ( 60 ) . her “opinionated mind” led her to give all those gifts to “an old bellows full of angry wind” ( 64 ) ( Major MacBride ) . Because of her strong sentiments. Yeats decides that excessively much sentiment in a adult female is harmful.

Yeats so imagines his girl having the same gifts that Maud received. but driving out hatred and accepting Heaven’s will as her ain. and her psyche recovering its “radical innocence” ( 66 ) or rooted artlessness ( one time once more returning to the image of the tree ) . taking to happiness her and all others who drive out hatred. The verse form ends with the imagined matrimony of his girl and the house that her groom provides for her. incarnating “custom” and “ceremony” ( 77 ) . is one time once more the antonym of the delicate house in the beginning of the verse form that Yeats frights will non protect her from a storm. He closes his supplication by returning to the image of the horn and the tree. as beginnings of ceremonial and usage which he hopes will deliver the universe.

SUMMARY William Butler Yeats ( 1865-1939 ) . the famed Irish poet. the victor of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. demands no debut. The Irish individuality was really strong in him and as an active member of the Irish National Revival. he tried his best to add Celtic fables to arouse the glorious yesteryear of his land. In a clip when the universe was much fragmented. he endeavored to make a incorporate position of things that is cohesive and all encompassing. The verse form is an intense look of how Yeats felt after his girl Anne was born although the thoughts conveyed go far beyond the personal. Subject of the Poem The verse form portrays how a male parent. who has been blessed with a girl. prays for the hereafter felicity and public assistance of her. The poet hopes that alternatively of turning up to be a really beautiful adult female. his girl should be blessed with the properties of a virtuous and great psyche.

She should be well-bred and full of humbleness instead than being strongly opinionated. to avoid rational abhorrence because that can submerge her in wretchedness. Summary In the beginning. Yeats negotiations about the storm holding commenced brewing in the seas. Between his freshly born girl and the sea. there stand a bare hill and Gregory’s forests which might non queer the storm from making the helpless baby. The male parent is of course disquieted as he senses the gale striking the tower and the bottoms of the Bridgess. To his head. the storm presages the hereafter of her girl holding arrived with a fury. mounting from the looking artlessness of the sea. As a male parent. the poet wishes beauty for her girl but non such hot stuff that would steep others to distraction or do her vain. He does non desire her girl to be bereft of kindness nor does he desire her to neglect in taking the individuals with whom she will be friendly. The male parent frissons at the idea of her daughter’s turning to be another Helen of Troy. who couldn’t aid being unfaithful as she was so beautiful.

Some lovely adult females like the queen who had non had her male parent enforcing utile restraints upon her. take an ordinary Smith with warped legs. alternatively of get marrieding a handsome yet virtuous adult male fiting her fine-looking expressions and societal standing. It is unusual how finely beautiful adult females frequently choose ‘a loony salad’ ( an undeserving hubby ) to travel ‘with their meat’ ( rich nutrient or their great beauty ) . His girl should recognize that she should be meriting of winning human Black Marias. She should non be like those cunning adult females who employ their appeals to utilize people to their advantage. It is true that work forces fall caput over heels for arresting females but it is truly the compassion of the adult females which they get enamored by in the terminal. The male parent in the poet is acute that her girl should be like a tree giving relief and shadow to people when she grows up and her feelings should be like the Sweet vocal of the house finch that spreads joy for the interest of making so. It is really likely that she will sometime want something intensely in a incorrect spirit or engage in some discord at times but allow them be transeunt and non really serious. Let her be like an evergreen tree ; allow her direct her roots into the deepness of her good strong beliefs standing at the same topographic point. The poet is contrite that his running after the people he liked or the sort of gorgeousness that he was infatuated with. could non sate him as he wanted and that he is weary of all the barrenness that has enveloped him now.

He seems to acquire momently confused as to what could be the right kind of beauty. He has nevertheless no hatred toward anyone as he is perfectly certain that it is the worst sort of malignity that could poison his life. He wants her girl besides to larn this truth before she allows her to be ruled by the negative force of hatred because such a mentality will salvage her from ask foring rough unfavorable judgment or maltreatments being showered upon her. The poet would non like her girl to be opinionative as that could take her to rehearsing rational abhorrence which the poet considers to be the worst sort of malady in a human being. He recollects coming in close contact with a beautiful and complete adult female who had to give away everything by being strongly biased. The truth rings clearly in the poet’s head that by taking all hatred from one’s head. the psyche non merely regains its artlessness but besides embarks on the journey of pleasing in itself. Since the spirit of the psyche is the will of God. he fierily prays that his girl should be able to detect her psyche and be happy in the face of any storm or disapproval. And eventually. as a male parent. he hopes that she will be betrothed to a adult male who has for of all time steered off from abhorrence and haughtiness which is so common everyplace. Let the house of her hubby be comfy and secure but non at the disbursal of anyone.

An Analysis of the Poem “a Prayer for My Daughter” by William Butler Yeats Summary: A Prayer for My Daughter written by William Butler Yeats. An analysis of the verse form. An Analysis of the verse form “A Prayer for My Daughter” by William Butler Yeats A Prayer for My Daughter is a poem written by William Butler Yeats in 1919. This verse form is a pray-like verse form. And it by and large tells about the poet’s thoughts about his girl who is kiping at the same clip while the verse form is being told. Throughout the verse form the Yeats reflects that how he wants his daughter’s hereafter should be. This essay will analyse the verse form under three captions: 1- What does this verse form mean” . 2- The poetic devices. imagination. rhyming. figures of address. used in the verse form and temper. enunciation. linguistic communication. and the construction of the verse form. 3- An essay in a feminist point of position titled “What does the poet desire his girl to become”” . 1-WHAT DOES THIS POEM MEAN” The poet is watching his baby girl slumber. In the first stanza he starts with depicting the scene of the verse form.

It is stormy outdoors. there is a sort of dark and glooming conditions and he prays for her. And he says that he has somberness in his head and we will understand that what somberness is that in his head. In the 2nd stanza the poet describes the things while he was praying for his girl. He walks for an hr and notices the “sea-wind shriek upon the tower” . “under the arches of the bridge” . “in the elms above the afloat watercourse. ” They likely represent the dreaming of the human existences and they are decisive. They are all about the present things and they block people from believing about the future events. The last four lines of the 2nd stanza clearly explain this thought: “Imagining in aroused revery That the hereafter old ages had come. Dancing to a manic membranophone. Out of the homicidal artlessness of the sea. ” In the 3rd stanza he prays for her beauty. but non excessively much. He considers the beauty as a decisive component for taking the right individual to get married. He emphasizes that excessively much beauty may do her loose the “natural kindness” therefore that might forestall her from happening the “heart-revealing intimacy” and a true friend. Related with the 3rd stanza. the 4th stanza refers to Helen herself. who “being chosen found life level and dull. ” and besides to Aphrodite. the goddess of love. who chose her spouse the cripple. Hephaestus.

Helen “had much problem from a fool” . the sap is Menelaus. the hubby of Helen. whom she deserted in favour of Paris. Whereas Aphrodite suffered from “being fatherless” . hence without a male parent to steer her. Yeats intends to be a steering male parent to his immature girl. The 5th stanza describes the quality that Yeats came to see as at the very bosom of civilised life: courtesy. By courtesy he understands a agency of being in the universe that would protect the best of human self-respect. art and emotion. And in his supplication for his girl he wishes that she will larn to last with grace and self-respect in a universe turned hideous. He explains that many work forces have hopelessly loved beautiful adult females. and they thought that the adult females loved them every bit good but they did non. In the 6th stanza he hopes that his girl will be a “flourishing concealed tree” . which is non rebel but sort and happy. but contains her felicity within a peculiar topographic point. And to boot he wants his girl to be non argumentative and aggressive. or possibly rather and procure. “rooted in one beloved ageless topographic point. ” When combined with the old line. the last line clearly defines his hope fro girl to populate in a winning life “like a green laurel. ”

And the house finch besides represents that he wants her ideas to be a usher for a good life for her and her life to be in a good destiny. In the 7th stanza he tells about himself a small spot. and we can reason that he besides suffered from love and beauty. but he besides emphasize that hatred is drying and destructive. Therefore he asserts that hatred is the worst response one can hold in the universe. He hopes that his girl will non hold such strong sentiments which are the signifiers of hate. Then he implies that “an rational hatred” is the worst of hates. In this stanza he uses an image “Plenty’s horn. ” It symbolizes the beginning of the rich gifts that will be given. served to his girl. This portion of the verse form besides accuses “the loveliest woman” . Maud Gonne. because of non utilizing decently the gifts given to her and he hopes that her girl will utilize them good and sagely. Ninth stanza serves the thoughts of Yeats about hatred and retrieving of the universe. He supports that a adult female can mend herself by acquiring off from hatred and besides the universe can be purified by avoiding from hatred and recreations.

Therefore we can retrieve the artlessness and we can “be happy still. ” In the decision stanza he hopes her girl to be married in ceremonial. of which beginning is the “horn” once more. He uses the ceremonial to typify the profusion of the horn and the power of the “laurel tree. ” 2. 1- POETIC DEVICES Onomatopoeia ( the usage of words that sound like the thing that they are depicting ) – ululating. shriek. spray. choking coil. frown. ululation Repetition ( stating the same thing many times ) – in the 9th stanza: self-appeasing. selfdelighting. and self-affrighting Alliteration ( the usage of several words together that Begin with the same sound or missive in order to do a particular consequence ) – ululating. and half hid. cradle-hood and coverlid. great somberness. sea-wind shriek. being made beautiful. like the house finch. live like. house finch from the foliage. hatred goaded hence. recovers extremist. bellows burst. bridegroom bring. happen a friend Assonance ( similarity in the vowel sounds of words that are close together in a verse form ) walked and prayed. young-hour. such-overmuch. trouble- sap. with-meat. yet-that-played. beauty-very. poor-roved. loved-thought-beloved. hidden-tree. dried-late. linnet-leaf. shouldscowl. quarter-bowl. hatred-wares. distributing laurel tree.

2. 2- FIGURES OF SPEECH Metaphor- Ceremony is used for the Plenty’s horn. usage is used for the spreading laurel tree. house finch is used for good religion. and laurel is used for holding a winning life Personification- Sea-wind scream-human being. years…dancing-human being. frenzied drumhuman being. angry wind- human being. Simile- “all her ideas may wish the house finch be” . “may she live like some green laurel” Juxtaposition- “murderous innocence” Imagery- The “storm” is stand foring the unsafe outside forces. may be the hereafter that she will meet with shortly. The “cradle” is stand foring his daughter’s infancy.

The sea is the beginning of the air current and logically is the beginning of “future years” every bit good. The “murderous innocence” is attributed to the sea and represents poet’s girl and the outside universe which waits for her. He uses the imagination “dried” for his head to explicate how the bad thoughts are rooted in his head. And besides he uses the “horn” as ceremonial and the “tree” as usage. 2. 3- LANGUAGE. DICTION. MOOD. STRUCTURE The linguistic communication used in the verse form is like the linguistic communication used in talks and besides supplication. The word “may” gives to the verse form a pray-like temper. The storyteller is the poet’s himself. and he tells the verse form rather personal. He uses “I” . “she” . “my daughter” to do it personalise. The tempers of the stanzas are different than the others. But the first stanza has a terrorization atmosphere. In the 2nd stanza he is dying about what will future bring to her. the 3rd 1 has the same temper but in here he is careful. In the following 1 he uses classical mythology to show his compulsions. The 5th 1 is a small spot more confident and hopeful.

The 6th one is more cautious and has a negative temper. The 7th is self cognizant. strong and sort of regretful. And the last three stanzas are written in a happy temper and have hopefulness. The construction of the verse form is non complex to analyse. It has 10 stanzas and eight lines each. It was written in iambic pentameter. The rhyme strategy is aabbcddc. and the beat is regular. 3- WHAT DOES THE POET WANT HIS DAUGHTER TO BECOME” The verse form is about William Butler Yeats thoughts. and his anxiousness about his babe daughter’s hereafter and life. He wants his girl to go a adult female who is virtuous. wise. He uses the image of his girl partially to stand for his ideal adult female. Most of the images that he uses are parts of the ideal adult female he has in his head or its antonyms. He supports that a adult female should be “a booming concealed tree” . who is non well-known but beautiful. She shouldn’t be anything but “merry. ” ” Innocence” is beautiful in adult females. that’s why if his girl keeps her artlessness interior and do non mistreat it. she will non be affected by the “wind. ” He thinks that excessively much beauty distorts adult females. and causes them to destruct the gifts that are given by “Horn of Plenty” therefore he wants his girl to utilize the gifts sagely and decently. And he wants his girl to larn the fact that “hearts are earned” . and the work forces. who are deceived by merely beauty. will detect their error subsequently. He wants her girl non to hold strong sentiments like hatred. because he thinks that hatred is the worst thing in the universe. He hopes she will get married. and her house will be full of imposts.

# # A Prayer of My Daughter by WB Yeats – an analysis by Claire Wong This verse form was written by William Butler Yeats for his infant girl. Anne. He worries about her. Maud Gonne was a extremist. opinionated intelligent adult female he had loved. but who had rejected his proposals. In this verse form he vents his ideas on her. A Prayer for my Daughter by W. B. Yeats: An Analysis Stanza 1: The conditions is a contemplation of Yeats’ feelings. The post-war period was unsafe. Anne’s exposure and artlessness is symbolised by the “cradle-hood” and “coverlid. ” “And half hid” shows that Anne is hardly protected by the frail “coverlid. ” Anne is unmindful to the violent forces around her ; she is nescient ( she “sleeps on” ; she is non wake up to the force around her ) . hence she is “under this cradle-hood” which hides her and is unaffected. ( The forces may be public violences. force. famishment. or decay of moral values. )

“Under this cradlehood and coverlid/My kid slumbers on. ” Her ignorance protects her from the uneasy cognition hence she “sleeps on. ” Robert Gregory died. His male parent could non protect him from decease. “The roof-levelling wind” is strong. stand foring scaring. disruptive forces. “Where by the haystack- and roof-levelling air current. /Bred on the Atlantic. can be stayed. ” USA was more comfy compared to Europe. Turbulent forces or “wind” was less important and more controlled in the USA. Hence it ca be “stayed” or controlled. Yeats prays because he is glooming ; “great somberness … . In my head. ” Tone: Terrorization. unstable. gloomy. Literary devices: personification – “the storm is howling” represents endangering external forces e. g. public violences. evilness. Roof-levelling air current represents disruptive forces.

Symbols – “Storm” represents outside forces which threaten Anne’s safety. “cradlehood” represents Anne’s artlessness and babyhood. “coverlid” represents artlessness and ignorance. frail protection. “wind” represents disruptive forces. “one au naturel hill” may stand for Robert’s decease. ( Why is the hill bare? Answers are appreciated. ) The hill is empty. it may stand for his decease – there is no 1 to busy it. Or it may be a hill where his gravestone lies. As I have said. I have no thought.

Metonym – The writer may be mistaken but “Atlantic” may be the United States of America. Rhyme strategy: aabbcddc

Stanza 2: Yeats is worried about Anne. “Ihave walked and prayed for this immature kid an hr. ” The conditions reflects the threatening forces he fears. “Flooded stream” represents intense forces caused by people as it has strong forces. It is “flooded” because the trouble makers exist in big Numberss or the forces are strong. The conditions or external forces caused by the war are stormy and destructive. THe “elms” are tossed due to the destructive forces. Peoples ( perchance represented by “elms” ) are affected. Tone: intense. dying. frantic. helter-skelter. This is instead despairing and pessimistic but there is a displacement of temper. “Imagining …” When Yeats starts to conceive of. he helps his girl ; he decides how she should turn out. This appeases his concerns and gives him new thoughts and nutrient for idea. . He imagines how her hereafter will be excitedly. “Imagining…the future old ages had come/Dancing to a manic membranophone. ”

Anne’s life will go through in pandemonium. “Dancing to a frenzied drum” besides indicates the passing old ages in Anne’s life which are represented by drum-beats ( which have beats and pacing ) – which besides symbolize force and pandemonium. It is a violent and helter-skelter clip. The membranophone is “frenzied” because of the danger and pandemonium about Anne. Furthermore. Yeats is excited ( therefore frenzied ) for her to turn up. Anne’s artlessness is juxtaposed with the contrasting “sea” which is “murderous. ” The sea represents the universe and the crowds around her. and as they are evil. destructive and take advantage of her artlessness. they are “murderous. ” Furthermore. the “sea” or the universe is termed as “murderous innocence” because as portion of the “sea” . Anne’s artlessness is ‘murderous’ to herself because it enables others to pull strings her. Tone: frantic. crazing. excited. Literary devices: symbols – “sea wind” . “flooded stream” – turbulent forces Personification – “future old ages … dancing” – the passing old ages of life Juxtaposition/oxymoron/paradox – “murderous artlessness of the sea” Sibilance – “sea-wind scream” Assonance: ”sea-wind scream” Onomatopoeia – “scream” Stanza 3: Yeats hopes that Anne will be beautiful but non overly. “May she be granted beauty and yet not/Beauty to do a stranger’s oculus distraught. ”

Beauty is deflecting and destructive. because it causes an supporter to be “distraught” and unhappy as a consequence of this unrealized desire to possess this beauty. Besides. he may want her negatively and steal her artlessness. It inspires passion which may be hopeless. She should non be conceited and egotistic of her beauty. “Or hers before a looking-glass. ) Yeats frights that beauty will do her think that it is sufficient. for beauty would assist her. Beautiful people being more attractive can profit more. and with this property. Anne may believe that she needs non perform Acts of the Apostless of goodness. for her beauty is sufficient to put her in a place of security and credence. This causes her to lose “natural kindness” . She does non see or appreciate the values of kindness and virtuousness. She would believe herself superior and strive less without assisting others. They do non hold to be sort and contemn the physically unwanted. Furthermore. their beauty allows them to be fastidious in their pick of spouses. holding many supporters. Hence. they do non take the right individual as they have no bosom or psyche. “Lose … the heart-revealing intimacy/ That chooses right. ” They can non love genuinely and care for veneer and shallow qualities. for they can non truly feel or cognize who “the one” is. They are sought for.

The right individual would in the terminal be more drawn to a good adult female as shown in stanza 5. “Hearts are non had as a gift but Black Marias are earned. ” Beauty obstructs friendly relationship every bit being as being beautiful causes one to be condescending. malicious and take things for granted. It causes the loss of human touch for the beautiful may be given to tout and contemn their inferiors. They are non true friends. In another position. they do non organize true friendly relationships because others befriend them for the benefits derived from their visual aspect and even take advantage of them. The beautiful do non pay attending to those who make true friends as they believe themselves superior in beauty. manner. etc. etc. Furthermore. inordinate beauty consequences in jealousy and broken friendly relationships. Another point to do is that beauty that over-entices may diminish Anne’s virtuousness and increase her exposure as others wish to utilize her. This is important as in this verse form. Yeats emphasizes the demand for feminine artlessness. In contrast. a plainer individual being on a lower hierarchy will appreciate the importance of kindness. In this context. beauty is equated with society’s superficiality. Tone: imploring. beseeching. prayer-like. reflective. Literary devices: personification – “stranger’s oculus distraught” – attracts and saddens one who is attracted Symbol – the “stranger” is an unhappy supporter. Alliteration – “stranger’s oculus distraught” .

Stanza 4: Yeats speaks of Greek mythology. Helen of Troy. being the most beautiful adult female in the universe. married Paris. a stupid adult male. Quotation mark: “Helen being chosen found life level and dull / And subsequently had much problem from a sap. ” As she was greatly admired and revered for her beauty. life was tiring with small discord. “While that great queen. that rose out of the spray. ‘being fatherless could hold her wasy/ Yet chose a bowed Smith for adult male. ” Venus or Aphrodite. being fatherless. could get married as she pleased with no parental authorization. Yet with all her power and advantages “chose a bowed Smith for man” ( Hephaestus ) – person inferior to her. She had no male parent to steer her. Yeats intends to steer his girl in the pick of a suited partner. Yeats is contemptuous: civilized adult females make huffy picks in partners. “Fine adult females eat/ A brainsick salad with their meat. ” Meat is significant ; salad is non. Meat represents a all right lady who can be said to be “substantial. ” holding legion qualities ; the “crazy salad” is their awful mate. who is devoid of many qualities. They can hold more. but choose worse. The Horn of Plenty was a horn given by Zeus to his caretaker.

The owner of this Horn would be granted his wants. “Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone. ” This is because Maud Gonne squandered her gifts of mind. grace and beauty and the benefits she could command by get marrieding John McBride. She could obtain what she desired with these gifts – similar to the Horn of Plenty – and wasted the aforesaid gifts on McBride. As the Horn of Plenty could convey commissariats. John McBride is symbolized as an insubstantial “salad. ” Maud Gonne wasted her supposed power ; she could hold done better for herself. alternatively she made the incorrect pick or desire. Tone: misanthropic. sad. troubled. scornful. Literary devices: symbol – “Helen” . “Queen” – a beautiful civilized adult female or Maud Gonne “Horn of plenty” – gifts. advantages. Metaphor – “crazy salad” – an inferior partner. Stanza 5: Yeats wants Anne to be gracious.

Love does non come freely and unconditionally. “Hearts are non had as a gift but Black Marias are earned. ” Love is non inspired by mere physical beauty ; it is earned by good attempts “by those who are non wholly beautiful” who are sort and helpful. Those who have in stupidity made a sap of themselves by hopelessly loving beautiful adult females and thought it was reciprocated. “Yet many. cheapnesss have played the fool/ For beauty’s really self. ” One may non be loved by a beautiful adult female. “ “Charm” from a good adult female has charmed a adult male finally. “has appeal made wise. ” He becomes “wise” by recognizing the goodness of loveing a good adult female. Unsuccessful work forces have loved and are loved by sort adult females who make them happy. yet are non beautiful. “Loved and thought himself beloved/ From a glad kindness can non take his eyes. ” She “ can non take his eyes” or maptivate him by sight because she is non physically beautiful. But her kindness makes him glad. This could be a mention to Yeats’ married woman. . Georgie Hyde Lees who was non beautiful. but they had a happy matrimony. Georgie loved him and allow him take the recognition for her work. The character praises good unbeautiful adult females – like Georgie – who re more loved by work forces compared to harsh beautiful 1s – Maud Gonne. Tome: reflective. advisory. grateful. enlightened.

Literary devices: personification – “glad kindness can non take his eys” “charm made wise. ” Symbol – “hearts” – love. Stanza 6: From here onwards. more symbolism and interesting reading can be derived. Yeats hopes that his girl will turn and boom with virtuousness and modestness. “May she go a booming concealed tree. ” She must be “hidden” – non excessively unfastened and opinionated like Maud Gonne. A “tree” is fresh. soothing and natural. He wants her to be unagitated. good-natured and natural – non overinfluenced by opinionative thoughts. ( Why non a flower – which is a normally used to typify a miss? Possibly a flower is excessively attractive and unfastened. Mention to Stanza 3. ) Yeats wishes that Anne will hold merry. pleasant ideas. He wants her to speak of good. pleasant things. “That all her ideas may wish the house finch be. / And have no concern but distributing about / Their munificences of sound. ” The house finch is a bird which flies. stand foring a merry. Sweet. miss – non excessively serious. declamatory and violent like Maud Gonne. Yeats wants Anne to trail and dispute merely in gaiety. He wants her to be happy and non excessively ambitious or opinionated. “Nor but in merriment get down a pursuit. / Nor but in gaiety a wrangle. ”

He does non desire her to “ : chase” aspiration ruthlessly. The “quarrel” indicated is mere reasoning for merriment. Yeats wants Anne to hold a solid place and top be stable. “Rooted in one beloved ageless topographic point. ” The place is happy. hence it is “dear. ” This may besides bespeak trueness to one adult male. Maud Gonne had consummated a relationship with Lucien Millevoye – with two illicit kids – and gone on to get married John McBride. Yeats wants Anne to be changeless to one adult male. unlike Maud Gonne. “O may she populate like some green laurel. ” Here. Yeats uses mythology. The “green laurel” may mention to the nymph Daphne who was pursued by Apollo. Eager to protect her virtuousness. Daphne turned into a laurel tree. Similarly. Yeats wants Anne to be virtuous. unlike Maud Gonne. The word “green” in bend may typify peace. artlessness and young person. We have already mentioned peace – in her place – and artlessness.

Anne’s young person is non physical but mental. Her male parent wants that she will be gay and immature at bosom. Why green – non ruddy or brown? Russet – red-brown – is associated with fall or in-between age and diminution. Maud will melt and has declined due to her non-innocence. Her sentiments do non denote one who is immature at bosom. Green denotes being immature at bosom. It besides means rawness or artlessness – something merry. lively and different. a welcome alteration. For we say inexperient people are “green” . Yeats does non what his girl to be drab and old at psyche. Maud is surely experient ; he wishes for Anne’s mental young person and artlessness and verve besides represented by the coloring material viridity. For it may bespeak evergreenness. Trees that are green are fresh and alive ; russet trees are deceasing and melting. Maud declines because she is experient and deflowered ; her mental young person is gone. Hence Anne is the opposite – viridity. Anne. being “green”

hopefully will retain mental young person with no worse alteration. Tone: hopeful. prayer-like. more positive. Literary devices: symbol – “hidden tree” – Anne. virtuousness and modesty Symbol – “green laurel” – virtuousness. modestness. mental young person. evergreenness. artlessness. rawness. Simile – “that all her ideas may wish the house finch be” – that Anne’s ideas will be pleasant and merry. Metaphor – “Rooted” – stability and stableness Metaphor – “One dear ageless place” – Anne’s place. Stanza 7: Yeats states that his head does non profit but “has dried up of late” or weakened. tired and non stimulated because of the head of Maud Gonne ( whom “I have loved” and whose beauty he admired ) hardly prospers. He has mentioned her lacks. This weakens him.

“My head. because the heads that I have loved. ‘ The kind of beauty that I have approved. / Prosper but small. has dried up of late. ” However. he states that hatred is the worst property and “of all evil opportunities evil. ” “If there’s no hatred in a head / Assault and battery of the air current / Can ne’er tear the house finch off from the foliage. ” The” wind” signifies the destructive forces around Anne and it “ can non tear” Anne – symbolized by a house finch – off form the “leaf” – a delicate topographic point or status. “Linnet and “leaf” portray something fragile. Agonies and destructive forces can non destruct the fragile who do non detest as their heads are clear. composure and free. Negative ideas make us endure. Tone: Sad. stronger. confidents. lecture-like. reflective. Literary devices: symbol – “wind” – destructive forces Symbol – “linnet” – Anne Symbol – “Leaf” – a delicate topographic point or status. Personification – “Assault and battery of the wind” – devastation.

Stanza 8: “An rational hatred is the worst. / So allow her believe sentiments are accursed. ” The hate of an opinionative rational like Maud Gonne is the worst because it is strong. destructive. opinionated and the individual knows the ground for this hatred. The rational resists resistance and battles for his cause. There are good grounds for this cause and hatred. Fiddling hate is weak. for there is small ground. An rational. being determined and clever. will contend for a cause with passion and finding. Yeats does non desire Anne to be over-opinionated. “So let her believe sentiments are accursed. ” Yeats provinces that Maud Gonne had plentiful gifts which she did “barter that horn and every good / For an old bellows full of angry air current. ” The horn symbolizes gifts. The “bellows full of angry wind” depict her strong sentiments. It can besides stand for John McBride. who started a public violence. Possibly he could be said to be full of hot air or sentiments but small successful attempt. “and every good / By quiet natures understood” are her advantages which are understood and appreciated by people with quiet natures ( Yeats? ) . This makes sense particularly with McBride’s volume and maltreatment of his married woman.

The “angry wind” is ugly ( McBride ) . Maud did non utilize her gifts decently. though she had courtesy. grace. ceremonial. and nobility. Tone: Lecture-like. reflective. misanthropic. Literary devices: Symbol – “Plenty’s horn. ” typifying gifts and advantages. Metaphor – “an old bellows full of angry wind” Stanza 9: Yeats states that if hatred is ridded off. “the psyche recovers extremist artlessness. ” Hatred causes wickedness and force ; hence to be rid of it is to be guiltless of these offenses. Artlessness is beautiful in adult females. “Innocence” is extremist because it is rooted in the psyche. “Considering that. all hatred goaded hence. / The psyche recovers extremist innocence” . A extremist is a term for a root. In another position. the “innocence” is “radical” or unconventional because after the war. artlessness became more uncommon. Hence. it is “radical” or something new to be guiltless. as it defies the flow of convention. “And learns at last that it is self-delighting. / self-appeasing. self-affrighting” . Artlessness causes these properties in the psyche.

It delights the psyche. for there is no hate ; it is peaceable and comforting. yet it is “self-affrighting’ because it is scaring that others can take advantage of one’s artlessness. “That its ain Sweet will in Heaven’s will ; / She can. though every face should scowl / And every blowy one-fourth ululation / Or every bellows explosion. be happy still. ” Goodness is heaven’s will because the psyche is supposed to be good. Goodness makes Anne happy: “its own Sweet will is Heaven’s will. ” Yeats provinces that Anne can still be happy amid pandemonium. sadness. wrangles and jobs if she is guiltless and free of hatred. “She can. though every face should scowl/ And every blowy one-fourth howl/ Or really bellows explosion. be happy still. If she is good. no 1 can harm her. So males will non overpower her ( ? ) If the psyche knows itself. “wind” or destructive forces can non harm her. for the head is at peace with itself.

Literary devices: repeat – “self-delighting/ self-appeasing. self-affrighting” Parallelism – “self-delighting/ self-appeasing. self-affrighting” Metaphors – “every face should scowl” – sadness and ill will “bellows burst” – pandemonium. statements. May hold mention to McBride’s “hot air” or people’s blare sentiments without consequence. Tone: disclosure. fantasizing. prophesizing Stanza 10: Yeats hopes that Anne will get married “and may her bridegroom bring her to a house/Where all’s accustomed. pompous. ” He wants her to hold a good. traditional hubby. Possibly he wants her to get married into a good. pompous household. He wants her to populate in usage and ceremonial. He does non desire haughtiness and hatred in her place. as that happens normally outside in the vulgar. common crowds “thoroughfares” and would take down herself. Possibly mentioning to the destructive forces outdoors. It is take downing. take downing herself and being ill-mannered. as one can happen “arrogance and hatred” in the “thoroughfares” as though they re common. rough “wares. ” Innocence and beauty and cultivated by usage and ceremonial. Yeats brings out his ideal virtuousnesss – usage. ceremonial. grace. nobility and artlessness. “How but in usage and ceremony/Are artlessness and beauty born? ” If we take “born” for its actual significance. nevertheless. Yeats wants his girl to hold guiltless. beautiful kids and these virtuousnesss are inculcated through usage and ceremonial.

Couple: “Ceremony’s a name for the rich horn. /And usage for the spreading laurel tree. ” The rich Horn of Plenty is positive now ; as it has offerings. it allows ceremonial. For it is pompous to hold good things and offer them. Possibly Yeats wants Anne to be comfortable and comfy. A horn besides represents ceremonial when one blows it to denote something. Custom is a tradition which is “rooted. ” When you works a tree. it roots. Hence. usage is represented by a tree. The place which inculcates usage is the root of the children’s virtuousnesss. Hence. usage is represented by a tree. The distributing laurel tree. is custom but earlier on. it is mentioned that Anne is a laurel ; tree. As laurel tree represents usage. it is “spreading” because Yeats wants Anne to distribute usage among her household.

A laurel tree may be seen as a household tree. In that instance. it is besides distributing because Yeats wants Anne to hold kids – the subdivisions which spread. doing a bigger household – and spread usage throughout the coevalss. Note that the term “olive-branches” means offspring. This is peculiarly disposed because in this stanza. Yeats speaks of matrimony. hence kids are born and usage is spread. Tone: Hopeful. reflective. consultative. lecture-like. opinionated. confident Literary devices: symbol – “thoroughfares” – universe and crowd at big and its Commonness “horn” – ceremonial “tree” – usage. household. kids. Anne Yeats.

“Prayer for My Daughter” SIMPLE QUESTIONS 1. Make you believe Yeats would desire his girl to keep a occupation or have a calling? ( If so. what kind? ) Why or why non? 2. What do you believe Yeats has against an “intellectual hatred” ( l. 57 ) ? Why do you believe it’s the “worst” hatred? 3. What do you believe Yeats means by “radical innocence” ( l. 66 ) ? [ Note: extremist = “from the roots. rooted. ” ] 4. Remark on what you think Yeats agencies by usage and ceremonial. ( Relate in some manner to the images of the horn of plentifulness and laurel tree. ) 5. In what ways might innocence and beauty be born out of these qualities? ( give illustrations ) .

6. Why do you believe it is of import to Yeats that beauty be born? 7. What contrasts does the gap stanza set up? See the scenes inside and outside. every bit good as the speaker’s frame of head.

Critical response
As the verse form reflects Yeats’s outlooks for his immature girl. feminist critques of the verse form have questioned the poet’s general attack to adult females through the text’s portraiture of adult females in society. In Yeats’s Ghosts. Brenda Maddox suggests that the verse form is “designed intentionally to pique women” and labels it as “offensive” . Maddox argues that Yeats. in the verse form. reprobate his girl to adhere to 19th Century ideals of muliebrity as he focuses on her demand for a hubby and a “Big House” with a private income. [ 7 ] Joyce Carol Oates inquiries the usage of a verse form to strip his girl of sensualness after Yeats’s rejected matrimony proposal to Maud Gonne presents a “crushingly conventional” position of muliebrity. wishing her to go a “flourishing concealed tree” alternatively of leting her the freedoms given to male kids. Yeats’s. In Oates’s sentiment. wishes his girl to go like a “vegetable: immobile. unthinking. and placid. ” [ 8 ] Majorie Elizabeth Howes. in Yeats’s Nations suggests that the crisis confronting the Anglo-Irish community in “A Prayer for My Daughter” is that of female sexual pick. However. Howes argues that to read the verse form without the political context environing the Irish Revolution robs the text of a deeper significance that goes beyond the relationship between Yeats and the female sex

W. B. Yeats’s “A Prayer for My Daughter” : The Sarcasms of the Patriarchal Stance

Leona Toker
Modifying Shelley’s position of poesy as prophesy. which so aggressively contrasts with Marianne Moore’s apparently disbelieving attitude to poetry ( “I excessively dislike it” ) . 1 William Butler Yeats has written that “Because an emotion does non be. or does non go perceptible and active among us. till it has found its look. in colour or in signifier or in sound … and because no two transitions or agreements of these evoke the same emotion. poets and painters and instrumentalists … are continually doing and un?making world. ”2 But world is besides continually doing and undoing the poet. The history of a poem’s response. like the destiny of a darling kid. is unpredictable. At one phase of response the rational and emotional repertory of a verse form may look hopelessly dated ; at another it may emerge every bit good in front of its clip. I shall chalk out these two contingencies in regard of Yeats’s “A Prayer for My Daughter. ”

A supplication is an effort to exercise an influence on the universe which. to rephrase Housman. one “has ne’er made. ” As a poetic move it is partially kindred to what in Les Figures du discours. the eighteenth?century rhetorician Pierre Fontanier describes as “metalepsis. ” that is claiming to bring forth. one may even state generate. that which 1 is simply depicting. Fontanier’s illustration is the gap of the 4th canto of Delille’s Trois Regnes de la nature: Enfin. j’arrive a toi. terre a jamais feconde. Jadis de tes rochers j’aurais just jaillir l’onde ; J’aurais seme de fleurs le bord de Tes ruisseaux. Deploye tes gazons. tresse tes arbrisseaux. De l’or de tes moissons revetu lupus erythematosuss campagnes. Suspendu les chevreaux aux buissons diethylstilbestrols montagnes. De leurs fruits savoureux enrichi lupus erythematosuss vergers.

Modern literary theory tends to change by reversal Fontanier’s differentiation and say that by utilizing images of birthrate Delille may be delivering the dream barren since in making so he is “instructing”4 the reader to raise it up in a certain manner. In footings of J. L. Austin’s performative speech?act theory. in an mundane address state of affairs. such a instance of ekphrasis would represent non a constative address act but a performative 1. an “exercitive. ” that is an act of “giving a determination in favor of or against a certain class of action. or protagonism of it. ” a determination “that something is to be so. as distinguishable from a judgement that it is so. ”5 Austin denies the possibility of using address act theory to the same vocalization if introduced in a verse form or a fresh since the usage of linguistic communication in such frames is. as he says. “parasitic. ”6 The word “introduced” is. nevertheless. a spring of ambiguities: does Austen mention to any sentence in a novel or a verse form or a direct address act “introduced” in this derivative discourse? What if the verse form as a whole is viewed as a complex address act. diversely deploying and harnessing in different illocutionary forces? The unwritten address act is made in an existent deictic state of affairs which determines the extent of its “felicity. ”

A literary work. as an act of communicating. belongs to a practical instead than an existent deictic state of affairs ; the writer can non anticipate what cultural audiences he might finally be turn toing. Hence. the scope of the perlocutionary effects of a statute literary text7 is much greater than that of a direct unwritten address act ; and the control that the talker can exert over its effects diminishes as the clip goes by. In that sense “procreation” is a better metaphor for the beginning of a literary address act than “performance. ” Indeed. the consequence of a felicitous performative address act. one performed by a individual in authorization and in appropriate fortunes. is definite. limited. and concluding. When the individual authorised to make so proclaims “I name this ship Queen Elizabeth. ” world is modified in the exactly intended manner. In giving birth. by contrast. eventualities are paramount. To a babe one transmits one’s codifications but in unpredictable combinations. and the universe into which a babe is inserted is one that even the most influential of parents has ne’er made.

The future life of a verse form and its hereafter rational environment are similarly notoriously beyond the author’s cognizance. Panta rei: [ page 102 ] everything flows. and in every which way ; there is no stating when and how and in what currents of ageless heterogeneousness the verse form will be reinserted. The instructions encoded in the text come down to us draging aura of spaces. and these spaces tend to turn with the transition of clip. The ensuing semiotic information can be partially contained by the survey of relevant biographical and intertextual stuffs that set bounds to the autonomies we take with texts. Yet these stuffs are. in their bend. reinserted into the ageless flow and do non re?emerge from it unchanged.

The eventualities of the ideological response of “A Prayer for My Daughter” are partially due to the significance of the issues raised in different parts of this instead long verse form. Yeats’s intervention of one issue may look archaically culture?bound. his intervention of another may emerge as prophetic. It seems of import. hence. to forbear from generalizing our response to separate parts of the verse form and from turning this partial response into a perlocutionary dominant of the verse form as a whole. The negative contingency in the reception?history of “A Prayer for My Daughter” may be illustrated by the harshly critical reaction of a feminist reader like Joyce Carol Oates to Yeats’s metaphors for the hereafter that he would wish for his girl: May she become a booming hidden tree That all her ideas may wish the house finch be. And have no concern but distributing round Their munificences of sound. Not but in merriment get down a pursuit. Not but in gaiety a wrangle. Oxygen may she populate like some green laurel Rooted in one beloved ageless topographic point.

Oates is disgusted with this chance: “This celebrated poet would hold his girl an object of nature for others’—which is to state male— delight. She is non even an animate being or a bird in his imaginativeness. but a vegetable: immobile. unthinking. placid. ‘hidden. ’ … The poet’s life?work is the creative activity of a distinguishable voice in which sound and sense are harmoniously wedded: the poet’s girl is to be headless and voiceless. rooted. ”9 [ page 103 ] It would look. nevertheless. that Oates is simply utilizing Yeats as a sample spokesman of a run?of?the?mill patriarchal place. practically indistinguishable in intent with that of American popular fiction for lady readers. This is fundamentally the place that George Eliot attributed to her Victorian Middlemarchers and defined in the undermentioned manner: “Women were expected to hold weak sentiments ; but the great precaution of society and of domestic life was. that sentiments were non acted on. ”

Oates’s docket is to demo that despite the huge aesthetic distance between modernist literature and the middle?to?low?brow ladies’ reading?matter that she criticises in her article. the continuity of the paleological patriarchal mind?set forms a partial ideological convergence between them. The lone topographic point in the verse form that is. so. a clear look of an disused patriarchal attitude is the culture?bound tardily Victorian mention to the bridegroom who is expected to fix a ready?made signifier of well?being for the bride: “And may her bridegroom bring her to a house ? Where all’s accustomed. pompous. ” Already more than half a century before novelists like Dickens and George Eliot created striking portrayals of adult females who offered assisting custodies to unanchored immature work forces alternatively of waiting for them to measure up ( chiefly financially and prior to matrimony ) for the functions of respectable caputs of the household. The two lines merely quoted may back up Oates’s review of Yeats. but she discredits her instance when she attempts to back uping it by her reading of lines 65?72: … all hatred goaded hence. The psyche recovers extremist artlessness And learns at last that it is self?delighting.

Self?appeasing. self?affrighting. And that its ain Sweet will is Heaven’s will ; She can. though every face should scowl And every blowy one-fourth ululation Or every bellows explosion. be happy still.

What for most readers is a poet’s dream of his daughter’s rational and emotional independency is. for Oates. a recommendation of “a sort [ page 104 ] of autism of the spirit. ”11 Here Oates overshoots her end by bewraying her ain near?totalitarian inclination to reprobate non?joiners. Her metaphor of “autism of the spirit” conflicts with Yeats’s simile which presents his daughter’s ideas non as a natural branch of her being ( non. for case. as the leaf of the tree to which he likens her in his vision ) but as cantabile birds ( house finchs ) . gently hosted by the boughs that do non bear the autistic fruit of hatred ( “If there’s no hatred in the head ? Assault and battery of the air current ? Can ne’er tear the house finch from the leaf” ) and shared by the tree with the outside universe. Ideas are therefore presented as spouses in the relationship. and the worst that can be said of Yeats’s imagination is that he does non look to anticipate his girl to bring forth original ideas. The poem trades non with the desirableness or danger of new philosophical penetration ; the mark of its review is “opinions. ” that is. the socially formalized and shared attitudes that suppress and harm individualism alternatively of advancing its growing.

There is. furthermore. a difference between the Middlemarchers’ dismissively paternalistic attitude to adult females and an existent father’s desire to hold his kid protected from that “murderous artlessness of the sea”—from that “blood?dimmed tide” which. in Yeats ‘s “The Second Coming” drowns. and “In a Prayer for My Daughter” threatens to submerge. “the ceremonial of artlessness. ”12 The urge of paternal protection works irrespective of the baby’s gender ; so it characterizes both “A Prayer for my Daughter” and “A Prayer for My Son” ( 1921 ) . written after the birth of Yeats’s boy. Both the verse form contrast aggressively with the Romantic want to hold the object of one’s attention exposed to the seasons ; Yeats’s docket is that of the effort of his psychic energies in a ( doomed ) effort to screen.

“A Prayer for My Son” lacks the touches of specific tenderness elicited by a girl?baby ( they are partially compensated for by the attention for the baby’s female parent ) ; and though it is besides free from the fanciful Victorian?style match?making. it is the weaker verse form of the two. M. L. Rosenthal has noted that its feelings “seem strained. particularly in the comparing of the dangers the poet says the kid will face ( such as enemies covetous of his accomplishments ) with those faced by the Holy Family. ”13 A adult female and a adult male Unless the Holy Writings prevarication Hurried through the smooth and unsmooth [ page 105 ] And through the fertile and waste. Protecting. till the danger yesteryear. With human love.

However. this allusion to Mary’s and Joseph’s plight can be read as stressing non the magnificence of the baby’s hereafter “deed or thought” but as an ultimate look of the parents’ weakness to prevent their child’s martyrdom: the present danger will go through. but non the 1 thirty? three old ages subsequently. The name that qualifies the future “deed or thought” of the kid is non. as one might anticipate. “mighty” ( or some such bisyllabic word that would suit into the prosodic slot in the line ) but “haughty” ( “some most disdainful title or thought” ) —a word with non merely positive but besides strongly negative intensions. 14 It is about as if the exercitive speech?act of “prayer” in both the verse form seeks to protect the kid in each verse form non merely from the enemies of their thoughts but besides from the sway of the thoughts themselves. This is exactly the attitude which. if non original. is. however. in front of its modern-day philosophical contexts. “Intellectual hate is the worst. ” “opinions are accursed. ” “not but in merriment get down a quarrel”—all these might merely every bit good be among the rhetorical sketchs of the type of late?twentieth?century rational whom Richard Rorty calls “a broad satirist. ”

The ideological portrayal of “a broad ironist” is painted in Rorty’s book Contingency. Irony. and Solidarity: as a broad. such an rational has one strong opinion—that “cruelty is the worst thing we do” ; 15 as an satirist. he ( or she ) . recognizes the cultural. political. and biographical eventualities of his ?her sentiments. 16 “Nor but in merriment get down a pursuit. ? Nor but in gaiety a quarrel” might in fact sound as a stylistic betterment on the grain of dry salt with which a broad satirist treats all of his?her opinions—except the 1 on inhuman treatment as the worst thing we do and the self?reflective 1 on the demand for the dry stance. Yet. as Rorty himself indicates. the stance of the broad satirist is “not authorising. ”17 Yeats knows that good: in “The Second Coming” the unsafe forces. “the worst. ” are characterized by “passionate strength. ” whereas “the best deficiency all conviction” and hence can non. or will non seek to. dam the tides of force. The prophetic truth of these intuitions [ page 106 ] requires no remark.

In “A Prayer for My Daughter. ” frequently regarded as a comrade piece to “The Second Coming. ”18 the talker casts for a normative decision. and finds it in the topographic point where another twenty?first century philosopher. Bernard Williams will present a rectification on the dry stance. For Yeats the instabilities that result from an ironist’s pluralism are to be compensated for by “rooted”?ness in “custom” and “ceremony” ; for Williams. they are to be contained by the “ethical confidence” that consequences from a witting association with a prolonging cultural or ideological circle. 19 A acknowledgment of the cogency of other positions need non undermine or even relativise one’s ain position— one’s philosophical bridgehead has a good opportunity of stableness if it has been planted by a witting and reciprocated committedness to the people around one. What makes Yeats vulnerable to unfavorable judgment like that of Joyce Carol Oates is that his motive of usage and ceremonial are intellectually less well-founded than Williams’s broader construct of ethical assurance. They do non stipulate. for case. that the planting of the ego in a tradition is to be done by the ego. instead than by others.

The “flourishing concealed tree. ” that is Oates’s “vegetable. ” is a transmutation of the tree?of?life topos that grows in many a poetic tuneful secret plan. As celebrated above. the broad ironist’s committedness to her thoughts ( the house finchs in the tree ) is presented non as a affair of organic branch but as company. Yeats himself is believed non to hold wholeheartedly endorsed his ain eclectic “salad” of mystical thoughts but instead to hold needed these thoughts as a counterbalance to rationalism. 20 to hold liked life in their locality. evoking and hosting them. and turning to them for poetic linguistic communication. 21 The relationship between the tree and the retentive vocalizing birds contrasts with the celebrated bird images of “The Second Coming. ” where the hawker loses control of the falcon which has been spiraling above him in ever?widening circles and which. in the 2nd poetry paragraph. generates the desert birds that angrily reel over a slouching monster. The motive of runing. associated with the falcon. is in “A Prayer for My Daughter” replaced by the playful ”chase” ( “Nor but in merriment get down a chase” ) ; the “indignant” calls of the desert scavengers cheated of their [ page 107 ] quarries are replaced by the linnet’s “magnanimities of sound. ”

The linnet’s generous. greathearted vocal is pitted against the ululation of the storm. the prophetic “frenz