Saturday, April 11, 2015

Do you agree that the airman sees his life and impending death as significant for his country in "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death"?

This very poignant poem by William Butler Yeats is a
metaphor for many soldiers in World War I who found themselves in a vision that breaks
into pieces as they realize the senselessness of war and the fatality under which they
now live.  Sensing his doom, the airman ponders the futility of dying as he is
disconnected from all involved in the war,


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Those that I fight I do not
hate,


Those that I guard I do not
love



Finally, the
airman realizes that his "lonely impulse of delight" in which he enlisted, swept by the
excitement of patiotism is "a waste of breath," for his loyalty is only to Kiltartan
Cross, a place where his countrymen are unaffected by this war in which he is involved; 
for they will suffer neither loss nor happiness as a result of the
battles:



No
likely end could bring them loss


Or leave them happier than
before.



Thus, his death will
be of no significance whatsoever to his countrymen.

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