English Study Hub

W. B. Yeats’ A Prayer for My Daughter: theme, summary and critical analysis W. B. Yeats' "A Prayer for My Daughter" (1921) is intensely a personal poem in which the poet expresses his deep concern for his beloved daughter, Anne, and dreams for his daughter's convincing future in his poem. This poem speaks about the anxiety shared by all fathers all over the world felt for the well-being of their daughters. Yeats visualizes a secured future for his daughter in the face of a chaotic and uncertain modern world. The poem is actually a prayer-like poem whereas the poet is more optimistic that his daughter will be able to encounter the harsh reality through the cultivation of good manners and courtesy. A study of the theme, summary and critical analysis of W. B. Yeats’ “A Prayer for My Daughter” finds the poet’s focus on customs and cultures rather than the physical beauty to rescue individual soul to survive in a world of growing disorder and misery, whereas feminine innoc...

W. B. Yeats’ “The Second Coming” (1921), as a modern poem, is viewed as the most vivid record of momentary prophetic insight in a chaotic world. An analysis of The Second Coming summary and the Second Coming poem analysis shows that it is an archetypal pattern of horror vision of destruction which exposes poet’s political wordiness through an exceptional and visionary masterful art. The poem predicts the close of the Christian era and the arrival of the new age, an age of political upheavals. The poet also suggests that after the numbers of anarchy the beast of apocalypse will arrive, as the revelation is near at hand. So, the poem blisters with apocalyptic ominous visions and consequently The Second Coming is studied as an apocalyptic poem. The Second Coming as a modernist poem portrays, in the very beginning, the contemporary situation of the modern world through a metaphorical and allegorical description of the landscape of falcon. ...

William Butler Yeats is one of the most influential poets of the modern age. He represents for us the literary side of the Irish national movement. He believed that civilization represents tyranny for the free spirit of the individual and was unusual in his age in the fact that he did not rail against it but chose to bring to its attention by his own superbly different world of the spirit. ‘A Prayer for My Daughter’ is a poem in which Yeats’s future concern is found clearly. ‘A Prayer for My Daughter’ is a personal poem which reflects the gloom of the poet and his fear of a stormy future. The poem was written in 1919 after the First World War and it reflects the post war frustration. The war ended in 1919 but Ireland remained disturbed. His infant daughter, Annie Butler Yeats, born in 1919, will have to face the challenges of the future. At this point in time, it is inevitable for Yeats to have been concerned about his daughter’s future in such a world. The poet thinks of s...