A Prayer for My Daughter

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1919

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Historical Context

“A Prayer for my Daughter” was written in 1919, at the beginning of the Irish War of Independence. Three years prior, in 1916, was the Easter Rising, when the Irish stood up against British rule (Yeats’spoem “Easter, 1916” is about this event). The Irish Republicans were unable to break away from British rule at this time, but in 1919, the Irish again declared independence. Throughout his life, Yeats was an Irish Nationalist; by the time the Irish War of Independence began, Yeats had married Georgie Hyde-Leeswhogavebirth to their daughter, Anne.

Earlier in his life, Yeats had more radical political leanings and was part of the Irish republican Brotherhood. His involvement with Irish revolutionaries and occultists was associated with his relationship to Maud Gonne. After Gonne rejected his repeated marriage proposals, Yeats’spolitical leanings became more conservative. MarryingGeorgie and fathering Anne bolstered his initial mixed feelings about Gonne’s husband’s use of violence in the Easter Uprising. “A Prayer for my Daughter” explores Yeats’sdistaste for violence—or “hate” as he repeatedly refers to it in the poem—and the shifting of his political leanings. However, the poem illustrates his ongoing desire for a free Ireland for his daughter as well as having symbolic representation.

Literary Context

Yeats was a modernist and symbolist poet; “A Prayer for my Daughter” uses extensive symbolism. The symbolist movement started with French writers such as Charles Baudelaire and gained a manifesto written by Jean Moreas in 1886. Yeats also wrote an influential essay titled “The Symbolism of Poetry.” At the heart of this poetic style is the idea that truths can be symbolically described through metaphors, similes, and imagery. Symbolism was a reaction to realism and naturalism; it emphasized the spiritual and imaginary over the gritty mundane. Yeats, as a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, was very interested in the metaphysical and occult.

The symbols in Yeats’swork are focused on the universal rather than the descriptive. For instance, in “A Prayer for my Daughter,” a symbolic tree—the laurel—is not described at length but employed for its mythological and cultural associations. Unlike some other modernist poets who used symbolism in free verse—like T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound—Yeats combined symbols with formal poetic structures. The use of symbols allows for political readingsofYeats’spoem; it is not simply about a daughter and father, but about the idea of fatherhood as it relates to a nation.