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William Butler Yeats

An Irish airman
forsees his death

Some challenging questions!

Keith Tankard
Knowledge4Africa.com
Updated: 25 June 2012
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An Irish airman during World War I contemplates the fact that he will most probably die in aerial battle.

The poem is a philosophical one which contemplates why the airman has chosen to fight. It is certainly not because he hates the enemy, nor is he interested in protecting his own people. Indeed, his participation in the war will achieve almost nothing that is either good or bad.

On the contrary, his decision is based solely on the ecstasy of flying and the adrenaline rush of participating in aerial dogfights.



A NOTE ON THE POEM

The Irish airman is certainly not the poet himself. Indeed, the poem is probably a celebration of the death of Major Robert Gregory, a personal friend of the poet and the only child of Yeats's patron, Lady Augusta Gregory.

All in all, Yeats wrote no less than four poems to commemorate Major Gregory's death, two of them being published in his anthology The Wild Swans at Coole -- "Irish airman forsees his death" being one of them.

Because the poet is not talking about himself, he is able to ponder the death of his friend and the reasons for his joining the air force in the first place. This also enables him to speak about the very nature of warfare itself.

His conclusion is that war achieves nothing that is useful. The poor -- encapsulated by "Kiltartan's poor" -- neither gain nor lose by warfare. War is therefore purely a thing of the state.

Accepting that his friend had that same belief, why then would he have enlisted to fight? The answer would appear to have been the personal excitement of it all, the exhilaration of flying high up in the clouds and the adrenaline rush of participating in aerial dogfights.

Your attention should focus on the final four lines of this poem containing a chiasmus which clearly explains the intellectual decision for the pilot's decision.

Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:



"I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above."
  • If the poet was still alive when he wrote this poem, who then was the airman who presumably died up there amongst the clouds? (2)

[Need help?]

  • The speaker says that he would meet his fate. Is this then a fatalistic poem, i.e. the speaker has no control over his fate but must die in the clouds because Fate demands it? (4)

[Need help?]

  • What war was being spoken of? How do you know? (2)

[Need help?]




"Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor."
  • Comment on the contrast between the words "fight" and "guard", between "hate" and "love". (4)

[Need help?]

  • Who was the airman supposedly fighting, whom he should therefore have been supposedly hating? (2)

[Need help?]

  • Why would the airman not hate those against whom he was fighting? (4)

[Need help?]

  • Why does the airman not love those whom he is supposedly guarding? (4)

[Need help?]




"No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before."
  • The poet explores the pointlessness of war. Explain the logic of his argument. (4)

[Need help?]

  • The poet also explores the contemporary philosophy of the inevitability of fate as regards the poor. What is this inevitability of fate? (4)

[Need help?]




"A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death."
  • Comment on the airman's use of the antithesis "this life, this death" in justifying his reasons for flying to meet his death. (4)

[Need help?]




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