Autobiographical Elements in "A Prayer for My Daughter" by W.B. Yeats

"A Prayer for My Daughter" is a deeply personal and autobiographical poem written by W.B. Yeats in 1919, shortly after the birth of his daughter Anne. The poem reflects Yeats' deep love for his daughter, as well as his concerns for her future in a world that he saw as being filled with turmoil and conflict.

The poem is deeply autobiographical, drawing heavily from Yeats' own experiences and beliefs. He reflects on the chaotic political climate of the time and his own desire for peace and stability for his daughter. Yeats was a prominent figure in Irish politics and was heavily involved in the fight for Irish independence. He lived through a time of great upheaval and change, and this is reflected in his prayer for his daughter's future. He expresses his fear of the negative influences that he believes threaten to corrupt the innocence of his daughter, and prays for her to be protected from these influences.

In the poem, Yeats also reflects on his own artistic pursuits and the legacy he hopes to leave for his daughter. He was a celebrated poet and playwright, and his love of art and literature is evident in the poem. He prays that his daughter will be blessed with the same creative spirit and love of beauty that he himself possesses. He also hopes that she will be able to find joy and solace in art and literature, just as he did.

The poem also reflects Yeats' belief in the power of imagination and the role it plays in shaping reality. He prays that his daughter will be blessed with the ability to see beyond the surface of things and to perceive the deeper truths of the world. He encourages her to use her imagination to create a better future for herself and for those around her.

Another autobiographical element of the poem is Yeats’ deep-seated spiritual beliefs, he prays that his daughter will be guided by a strong sense of spiritual purpose and that she will be able to find her place in the world. He prays that she will be guided by a sense of morality and that she will be able to make a positive impact on the world.

In addition to these personal and autobiographical elements, the poem also reflects Yeats’ love of Ireland and its culture. He prays that his daughter will be able to appreciate and understand the beauty of Ireland and its people. He hopes that she will be able to find a deep sense of connection to her homeland and that she will be able to contribute to its continued growth and development.

In conclusion, "A Prayer for My Daughter" is a deeply personal and moving poem that reflects the hopes, fears, and aspirations of the poet for his daughter and the world she will grow up in. Yeats' own experiences and beliefs are woven throughout the poem, making it an autobiographical work that is both deeply personal and universal in its themes. It is a powerful reminder of the love and sacrifice that parents make for their children, and the hope that we all have for the future of our children and the world they will inherit. 

Md. Rajibul Hasan

Lecturer in English

Govt. HSS College, Magura. 

Decay and Remedy in W.B Yeats' Poems or W.B Yeats is a Modern Poet

William Butler Yeats is one of the modern poets who is acutely conscious of modern civilization with its manifolds problems. Yeats vividly portrays in his poems the picture of disorder, despairing individual behaviors. He has seen a sense of uncertainty, insecurity with the loss of faith in Christianity. Also he perceives the decay of European society after the First World War. Besides, he has also provided some remedies to cope with these problems but the solutions suggested by him are not practical, but ideal and impossible.

 

The very opening lines of the poem "The Second Coming" neatly and effectively stop us with the situation of the world after the First World War. He wrote many poems dealing with the crumbling of modern civilization due of war. In the Second Coming, he describes what lies at the malady:

 

 

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer,

Things fall apart; the centre can't hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world"

 

Yeats mind is equally stuffed with the anarchy and the blood -dimmed tide of the modern world:

 

"The blood - dimmed thee is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all convictions, while the word

Are full of passionate intensity."

 

These lines indicate the decadence and disorder that prevailed after the First World War. The poet gives us a picture of the disintegration which has overtaken the Christian civilization. The diminishing force of Christianity is conveyed to us through the idea that Christianity is like a falcon that has lost touch with the falconer and has thus become directionless. The poet says that the centre of things is unable to hold itself together and as a result complete anarchy is let loose upon the world and this anarchy is bringing with it a lot of blood shed. The worst part of the whole situation is that the best people are not sure of themselves whereas the worst parts are sure of themselves. An atmosphere of fascination and violence has overtaken everything.

 

Yeats portrays that though war has been ended, its effects are continuously affecting the people of modern age. He says that there remains insecurity and disorder everywhere. Yeats feels gloomy and fears of a stormy future. He knows that the world is full of disorder and there "Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”

 

This threatening background is the cause for the poet's gloom. Being conscious of this chaotic world, the poet wants to save his daughter from many of the evils. Hence, the poet is naturally gloomy, and the poem opens with the image of his child sleeping innocently through a howling storm, and the poet wishes and prays for the safety, protection and the best settlement in life for her. The problem before him is how to protect his daughter from the wrath of the coming cruel tides of time which would bring a ruin upon civilization:

 

"Imagining in excited reverie

That the future years had come,

Dancing to a frenzied drum,

Out of the murderous innocence of the sea."

 

There is a great gloom in the poet’s mind and an excited reverie caused by the sad aftermath of the first world war. Dr. B. Rajan pertinently remarks, "yeats's prayer for his daughter gains in strength against the threatening background which makes the appeal to custom and ceremony."

 

Arnold Usher in ‘’ Three Irishman’’ says that in the poem, “A Prayer for My Daughter,” Yeats has focused some remedy of the decay of this modern age. He says ‘’mere anarchy’’ can’t harm the child if she is innocent and is in custom and ceremony breed’’.

 

In the poem, “A Prayer for My Daughter,” he wishes his daughter may find an aristocratic husband in order to be safe. He regards aristocracy as the guardian of the traditional culture and way of life and of the highest spiritual values.

 

The poet's fear is the safety of his daughter and his main indication is that the arrogance and hatred of common people revolves from their negligence of traditional and moral values. So, Yeats has given some solutions to cope with these manifold problems that are- traditional and moral values should be maintained instead of arrogance.

 

In the poem, “Sailing to Byzantium”, the poet is dissatisfied and frustrated with the country in which he has been living. He sees that modern people do not consider the genuineness of the old people but only cares for sexual pleasures. The young man and woman are in close embrace –

 

-"The young

In one another's arms"

 

They can spare no thought for those masterpiece of art which are the product of ageless intellect:

 

"Caught in that sensual music all neglect

Monuments of unageing intellect."

 

Yeats refers his age as the world of chivalrous, gallant, adventurous young men. This is the 20th century world of spider women who attract men into their fold. It is the world where only the young can enjoy honey of the sweet Eves; old men are shut out from it. But in his age, Yeats portrays that values have changed. Older people are neglected "That no country for old men."

 

As it is stated earlier that Yeats gives solutions that are ideal and impractical, he tries to solve the problem of how one should cope with old age. His solution here is that an old man should escape to Byzantium which is the world of art and spirituality as distinguished from the world of sensuality.

 

His desire for Byzantium was the antidote for the ‘’dissipation and despairs’’ that he found in the modern world. The escape to Byzantium means not only an escape from sensuality and morality but also from impurity, ugliness and corruption. The solution suggested by Yeats in this poem is not practical, but ideal and impossible.

 

Parkinson asserts that “‘Sailing to Byzantium’ is revealing, for the poem resolves the problem of old age and art.” (Thomas Francis Parkinson, 1971, p.56)

 

To conclude, it can be said that Yeats, in many of his poems, vividly portrays the various problems of the then society and gives ideal solutions to those problems.

 

References:

 

01.  Balachandra Rajan, (1969), W.B. Yeats: a critical introduction, Hutchinson: Hutchinson university library.

02.  Thomas Francis Parkinson, (1971), W. B. Yeats: the later poetry, California: University of California Press.

 

 

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William Butler Yeats is a Modern Poet

The following essay is on Yeats as a modern poet. I have tried my best to illustrate how Yeats can be referred as a true Modern Poet. In form and content, W.B Yeats is a true example of an Modern Poet. Have a look how I have proceeded. 

 Picture Source: Wikipedia

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is regarded as not only the most important Irish poet, but also as one of the most important poets of Modern age. His poems have been seen as the examples of modern literature. In his poems, we find astounding variety, political note, realism, religion, mysticism and so on. And all these matters have made him a true modern poet. However, his greatest period is generally said to have begun with the publication of The Wild Swans at Coole in 1919, and by the end of his career he was ranked along with Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, as a foremost modernist poet. (Intro by Ian Mackean)

Like many of the canonical Modernist writers, the work of W.B. Yeats represents the paradox of a longing for the past and a vision for the future, (Bradbury and McFarlane, 1991; Cantor, 1988). Whether it be the revision of America's political past, in the form of Ezra Pound's "John Adams Cantos" (Pound, 1986) or T.S. Eliot's revisiting of a Christian theological past in the form of his Ariel poems (Eliot, 1989) Modernism constantly sought to find a future from the traditional past, as Hugh Kenner says of Eliot: "these poems exhaust tradition, or as much of the tradition as lay within the compass of their author's purpose." (Kenner, 1969: 210)

Politics and contemporary life are also the concerned matters for modernist poets. And Irish politics was a theme to which Yeats frequently returned, particularly in the middle phase of his career, but he was responding as an individual to the turmoil and violence which was on the one hand tearing his country apart, and on the other hand setting it free. In his poem ‘Easter 1916’ his concern is to commemorate the individuals who suffered and died in the struggle to bring about what he calls 'A terrible beauty', and in his Nobel lecture he drew attention to the 'monstrous savagery' perpetrated on both sides of the conflict.

As Malcolm Bradbury assert in his Modernism: A Guide to European Literature 1890-1930 (Bradbury ad McFarlane, 1991), Modernism has always represented the symbiosis of aesthetic and socio-political ideals: "One of the word's (Modernism) associations is with the coming of a new era if high aesthetic self-consciousness and non-representationism, in which art turns from realism and humanistic representation towards style, technique and spatial form in pursuit of a deeper penetration of life." (Bradbury, 1991: 25)

In the early work of Yeats this took the form of a deliberate evocation of Irish mythology. In such poems as "Red Hanrahan's Song about Ireland" (Yeats, 1987: 90) and those in the volume The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1987: 99-109), the poet evokes an Ireland unified by a shared past, a land that finds homogeneity through appreciation of its environment. The fairy stories and folk tales that form the basic imagistic lexicon of, for instance, "A Faery Song"

"We who are old, old and gay, O so old! Thousands of years, thousands of years, If I were told." (Yeats, 1987: 43)

Connects Yeats with Ireland's bardic past, as Morton Irving-Seidin states in his book William Butler Yeats: The Poet as Mythmaker 1865-1939 (1962):"The literary traditional of Gaelic Ireland falls into two main currents, of which the first includes the bardic stories of the Red Branch Tribe of Ulster and the Fenians of Connacht and their successors." (Seidin, 1962: 6)

This is myth making and myth reinvention on a national scale; not only through his poetry but through his many dramas for the Abbey theatre, Yeats attempted to concretize an Irish aesthetic by reinterpreting and reinventing the tales and stories of Ireland's past; a semi-mythological psycho-temporal space that remained unsullied by the current and recurring political issues.

In poems like "Sailing to Byzantium" (Yeats, 1987: 217) we see this aesthetic vision devoid of the mythologized Ireland, the images and poetic allusions in this poem once again both evoke and create an artistic past, but this time it is a aristocratic past; a history, not of the folk tale, but of the landed, leisured, vibrant aesthetic; not of the bard anymore but the "drowsy Emperor" (Yeats, 1987: 218): "Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing, But such as Grecian Goldsmith's make Of hammered gold and gold enalling. To lords and ladies of Byzantium Of what is past, or passing, or to come." (Yeats, 1987: 218)


W. B Yeats’ poem The Second Coming has been seen as an example of modern zeitgeist literature (Hone,1962, Brandbury, Tratner,1995) at once depicting the de-centering and internal fissure of twentieth century culture and elegising the parting of a classical psychological period.

Yeats portrays that though war has been ended, it's effects are continuously affecting the people of modern age. He says that there remains insecurity and disorder everywhere. Yeats feels gloomy and fears of a stormy future. He knows that the world is full of disorder and there "Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world "

W. H. Auden in his Ken You Review essay, 1948 entitled "Yeats as an example", notes that Yeats accepted the modern necessity of having to make a lonely and deliberate choice of the principles and presumptions in terms of which(made) sense of his experience". Auden assigned Yeats the high praise of having written some of the most beautiful poetry" of modern times. 

W B Yeats biography by Nobel Prize org.  

More info about Yeats 

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