Analysis Of A Prayer For My Daughter By William Butler Yeats
“A Prayer for My Daughter,” by William Butler Yeats is a welcoming sonnet which depicts how a dad, fortunate with a daughter, appeals God for the future satisfaction alongside with the prosperity of his infant girl. The creator wishes that as opposed to growing up to be a lady of beauty and prospering excellence, his little girl ought to be honored with qualities of a virous and extraordinary soul. The author wants for her to be polite and full of humility instead of being strongly opinionated, to avoid any path that could suffocate her in hopelessness. The prayer for his little girl if for the development of a culture and human society based on innocence, beauty, and marriage ceremony. Shown by the use of imagery, symbolism, and the specific use of diction and structure alike. It is a prayer for each spirit to dig in and understand. Diction and structure are the formation of any literary work. To begin with, William Butler Yeats uses the words “may,” this word in the poem gives it a prayer like atmosphere. The word choices used in the poem are well suited as the poet is the child’s dad himself. The word choices used in the sonnet are “I,” “She,” and “my daughter. ” The word choices are used to give it a personal touch and to customize the poem. The diction the writer uses leaves the perpetrators in an emotional state of mind. Furthermore, the moods of the stanzas are continually deviating throughout the short work. In the first stanza, the way of writing is to show a terrifying setting. In the second stanza the writer places the perpetrators in an extremely worried time of how the future is looking for the young child. The fifth stanza is full of hopefulness and confidence alike. Whereas, the sixth stanzas were told in a negative mood. The stanzas following after are made to represent the kind, strong, and joyful moods. In “A Prayer for My Daughter,” the author writes each stanza with eight lines each, and they total up to ten stanzas. Therefore, the diction and structure make a huge impact on the prayer for his little girl. Using imagery, William creates a true representation of the future events that will arise and emphasizes the theme of the poem.
In the poem, Butler uses many significant things tat make the reader visualize and paint a picture in their mind. In the sonnet the “storm” represents the dangerous outdoors, this foreshadows and depicts what his baby will see in the future. The “storm” is represented to tell the reader that it will come very soon, and it will give a tremendous impact by the other images that come to mind when thinking about the storm like clouds, and acid rain. Another image which depicts an image is the “cradle” which is continually talked about and referred to throughout the poem. It represents the childhood of Anne and the time period of her early years. This is extremely significant as it shows the child’s “innocence” as she is just a newborn who is not mentally developed. “The sea” talked about in the poem is stated in such away that appeals to our physical senses ad it is a source of the wind and it represent the “future years. ” The “murderous innocence” talked about also refers to the sea as it connects to Anne and the outdoors which was for her coming to the planet. The use of imagery also associates to “died” as this expands the thinking mindset to show the hatred, which is put forward as a negative thing. By using strong imagery, William Butler Yeats evidently adds interest and creates meaningful images in the poem lovers mind. In “A Prayer for My Daughter,” many uses of symbolism arise and reflect thoroughly in the poem itself. William Butler Yeats uses the “plenty’s horn” to show a concrete item and he uses it to refer it to the gifts that he will be getting for his baby daughter’s birth. These gifts symbolize the physical gifts such as games, and also symbolize the biggest internal gift of all, life in the world. The poet mentions the “loveliest woman,” because loveliest women’s do not properly use their gifts which are given to them. Yeats hopes that his baby will not follow the example of the loveliest woman, but will instead incorporate the gifts received in effectively in her day-to-day live. In this piece of poetry, references are made to the concept of hate and hatred which has a large impact on the world lived in. Yeats conveys a message that a woman can heal herself by getting away from hate in the world, and also the world can be purified by avoiding from hatred. Therefore, many humans can continue to “be happy” each and every day of their lives. Close to the end of the verse composition the father talks about where his daughter will be married. He describes the setting of her marriage using symbolic representations. Such representations include the “ceremony,” and the “horn”. The father uses this to symbolize the rich ness, and the in-depth meaning of the horn as it describes the wedding rituals and the customs referring back to the major theme. Along with this, the poem refers the “Laurel tree,” which is a symbol of marital victory. Symbolism is something that Butler really takes into consideration when making such meaningful poems.
William Butler Yeats uses his incredible skills to create in the readers a scene made up of great diction/structure, symbolic objects, and creates visual imagery in the perpetrators mind. “A Prayer for My Daughter,” by William Butler Yeats is a welcoming sonnet in which the author prays for his little girl for the development of a culture and human society based on the innocence, beauty, and marriage ceremonies. Shown by the use of imagery, symbolism, and the specific use of diction/structure William masters the elements of an insightfully interesting poem.
