A Irish Airman Foresees his A Irish Airman Foresees his DeathDeath

W B Yeats

IntroductionIntroduction• “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” was written

during World War One by the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats. He probably wrote the poem for an Irish airman named Robert Gregory was shot down over Italy. Gregory was a close friend’s son.

• Ireland was under British control at the time so Robert Gregory fought for the British Air force. This is significant because the narrator in the poem has no attachment to the army he is fighting for. He doesn’t care about the outcome of the war.

• Yeats and the Gregory’s were nationalists but the poem is really about the futility of war rather than just the Anglo-Irish conflict of the time.

Tone and MoodTone and Mood• The speaker is in an unemotional state and

speaks in a cold, uncaring voice about his own life and death throughout the poem. His voice becomes warm when he is speaking of his neighbours in Kiltartan. When he speaks of the reasons men go to war, his tone is cold again. When the speaker refers to the past and future as a ‘waste of breath’ his tone becomes hateful or contemptuous.

• The mood is solemn and peaceful.

Rhyme and RhythmRhyme and Rhythm• The poem is written in iambic tetrameter.

Each line in the poem starts with an unstressed syllable followed by one that is stressed.

Iamb (Iambic)Unstressed /Stressed

Two Syllables

Tetrameter Four Feet

......1..............2.............3...............4SomeWHERE..|..aMONG..|..the CLOUDS..|..aBOVE,

Iambic Tetrameter

• For the most part the poem has four pairs of unaccented and accented syllables per line.

• The poem has four ungrouped quatrains which follow an abab rhyme scheme of alternating rhymes.

Structure and FormStructure and Form• The poem, which, like flying, emphasizes balance,

essentially enacts a kind of accounting, whereby the airman lists every factor weighing upon his situation and his vision of death, and rejects every possible factor he believes to be false: he does not hate or love his enemies or his allies, his country will neither be benefited nor hurt by any outcome of the war, he does not fight for political or moral motives but because of his “impulse of delight”; his past life seems a waste, his future life seems that it would be a waste, and his death will balance his life.

• Complementing this kind of tragic arithmetic is the neatly balanced structure of the poem, with its cycles of alternating rhymes and its clipped, stoical meter.

LanguageLanguage• Language The language is direct and conversational. But the sound effects

contain lots of repetitions that create a musical effect. • Diction The words are simple and the sentence structures are easy to

understand. • Full Stops and Commas The poem consists of two sentences, with full stops at

lines eight and sixteen. • Repetition Line four is very similar to line three. Find some of the many other

word or phrase repetitions that give the poem a sense of rhythm • Assonance [similar vowel sound repetition] Note the repeated ‘ea’ sounds of the

last three lines. This assonance reinforces the speaker’s tone of contempt. • Consonance [similar consonant sound repetition] ‘l’ is a sound that occurs a lot

in the poem. It creates a musical effect and highlights the main line, which has four ‘l’ sounds: ‘a lonely impulse of delight’. ‘L’ is very lyrical sound.

• Alliteration [repetition of consonant sounds at the start of nearby words] Note that in lines five and six, there are six words that start with a hard ‘c’ or ‘k’ sound. This makes the speaker’s voice sound strong at this point, where he is asserting his true loyalty.

• Sibilance [repetition of ‘s’ sound] Note how the ‘s’ sounds in the last four lines give the final words of the poem an intimate feeling.

StyleStyle• Yeats uses very carefully chosen words in this poem.

In the first line the narrator says “I Know that I shall meet my fate” instead of saying he knows he will die. Using the word fate instead of death shows that the narrator, not only believes he will die, but believes that it’s inevitable.

• He also uses the phrases “I do not love” when talking about the people he guards, and “I do not hate” when talking about the people he fights. This helps demonstrate the narrator’s indifference to the outcome of the war. In the final lines he uses the word balance to demonstrate his feelings about life and death, and rationality and irrationality. He is trying to show that everything is balanced, and that life and death are a part of each other.

ImageryImagery• “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”, uses very little

descriptive imagery. The poem is a narrative that takes place in the narrator’s head, and uses only a limited amount of description or imagery. Most of this imagery focuses on the sky and heaven.

• When the poem opens, instead of saying in the sky, he says “In the clouds above”. This may cause the reader to focus on the heavenly aspects of the sky, instead of thinking about it as the place where the narrator will lose his life.

• He later describes flying as a “Tumult in the clouds”. This may lead the reader to see flying as hectic and dangerous, and help them see why the pilot was so definite about his fate, and also why he finds flying exciting. He also mentions “waste of breath”; which draws parallels between the sky and life.

VoiceVoice• This poem is recited in first person. The poet is

recounting the thoughts that are going through his mind as his death approaches. This choice of voice is important because it gives insight into the thoughts of the airman fighting on the verge of death.

Point of ViewPoint of View• The narrator’s point of view is one of indifference in the

poem. He doesn’t care about the outcome of the war, because he doesn’t consider himself connected to the country he’s fighting for. He chose to be a pilot because of “A lonely impulse of delight”, meaning for the thrill of flying. He realized however, that whatever happens in the war, there will be little effect on his home country.

• The narrator “aligns himself with the poor”, because the war doesn’t effect people of the lower class. He explains that he flies not for glory or patriotism, but because it’s exciting. The narrator also believes that he will die in battle, but doesn’t care because he sees both life and death as “a waste of breath”.

ThemesThemes• Pursuing your personal dream

Major Robert Gregory joined the air-force to fulfil a dream. As the summary shows, he valued taking his chances in a fighter plane above his life. He did this for himself as he didn’t care about public opinion. He didn’t even want to be a hero. The delight it gave him was lonely or private, not something to be shared.

• WarThe poem looks at the various reasons that people go to war for. Some go to protect or guard their countrymen. Some go to war out of hatred for an enemy. Sometimes the law compels people to become soldiers. Others join battle out of a sense of duty to their country. Some become soldiers after being urged on by politicians. Others do it out of a desire for public approval, perhaps to become public heroes.

• DeathA young man, Major Robert Gregory, chooses a career that he knows will probably kill him. He considers the past and the future a waste of breath. He trades the thrill of a moment for his life. Death is the price he is prepared to pay for one worthwhile moment in life. He faced death fearlessly and with no regrets.