An Irish Airman Foresees His Death (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: William Butler Yeats
- First Published: 1919
- Type of Work: Dramatic monologue
- Genres: Poetry, Dramatic monologue
- Subjects: 1910’s, War, Death or dying, World War I, Fate or fatalism, Military life or service, Soldiers, Visions, epiphanies, or revelations, Life and death, Aviation or aviators, Ireland or Irish people, Pilots or pilotage
The Poem
“An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” is a short dramatic monologue, originally one of four poems written by William Butler Yeats to commemorate the death of Major Robert Gregory, son of Lady Augusta Gregory (Yeats’s onetime patron and later his colleague). Gregory, never a close personal friend of Yeats, was a multitalented Renaissance man, titled Irish gentry, athlete, aviator, scholar, and artist who, even though over the age for compulsory military service, enlisted in World War I. He did so because it was a magnificent avenue for adventure.
The poem is...
[The entire page is 1356 words long]
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