I read, "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death," by William Butler Yeats. I chose this poem from a book called, Western Wind on page 128. This poem's repetition, parallelism, and meter create significance by re-instating the speakers love for adventure, and his reasoning in enlisting in the military.
"Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight,
drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death." (Lines 9-16)
In lines 9 and 10 of "An Irish Airman," several examples of repetition show how law, duty, and glory, did not persuade the speaker to join the military. Yeats wrote this poem in the early twentieth century, so the speaker probably was an airman in World War I. The poet's use of repetition establishes the speaker's enlistment in the military, which was solely for the adventure of flying an aircraft. The words "balance" and "breath" (Lines 13-16) are seen twice in this poem which shows how the speaker found his balance in life to be in the sky. It also demonstrates how his passion for adventure was his "breath", oxygen, and lifeline.
Parallelism is used in lines 13-16. Lines 13 and 16 are parallel because they both show how the speaker found solace in life and death in flying an aircraft. Lines 14 and 15 are parallel because they demonstrate how his life before flying or without flying would be a waste of breath and he might as well be dead if he couldn't explore his love of adventure.
The poems meter is iambic tetrameter. This is meaningful because the poem is about balance, and if the poem was written in free verse, it would detract from it's meaning, as free verse is without balance and consistency.
1 comment:
BA 7
I remember reading this poem for another class of mine and remembering how Yeats constantly used nationalism not only in his poetry but his plays such as Cathleen Ni Houlihan. This poem could almost be considered nationalistic I suppose since Yeats is talking about an “airman” and his contribution to his country through his life (which is also touched upon in Cathleen Ni Houlihan). The parallelism that you mentioned in lines 13-16 interest me since they are showing the differences in how there is life and death through flying and how flying seems to fill his being. Also, in these lines I liked how the word “waste” was repeated giving good emphasis to it which, like was stated, suggests that without flying, life would be just a “waste”.
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