An Irish Airman Foresees His Death

Key Themes
1. Championing of war and risktaking/exploration of the motivation and pyschological state of those who want to fight
2. Death-Gregory trade the past and the future for one thrilling moment. Considers both a 'waste of breath'
3. He did not want to be a hero. Just wanted adventure
4. Some go to war fro patriotic reasons. They hate the enemy. Public approval. The law. Not Gregory
5. Yeats saw Gregory as a Renaissance man. His death affected him greatly
Analysis 1
1. Elegy for Robert Gregory
2. Structure unusual-Gregory narrates
3. Typically an elegy would mourn the topic.
4. Tone is not one of sorrow but fatalism
  1. Fatalism=acceptance of fate. What will happen will happen
5. Fatalism obvious from opening lines-'I know that I shall meet my fate'
6. Gregory goes on to say he has no motives for this fight. Not love of 'Kiltartan's Cross' or his countrymen 'Kiltartan's Poor'
  1. Tone is bleak/No sense of passion
Analysis 2
1. In lines 9/10 narrator makes it clear it was not the ''cheering crowds'' that made him fight
2. His decision was a rational one. Not impressed by the realities of war
3. Sense of cynicism in ''public men'' perhaps fools as he couldn't care less but those men don't deserve to die
4. He feels detached from his past and future ''years to come seemed waste of breath'' and ''a waste of breath the years behind''
5. Ironically he feels most alive when faced with a ''tumult in the clouds''. Following his ''impulse of delight'' when flying towards his inevitable deah
6. Repitition of 'waste of breath'' reiterates his contempt for a dull secure life

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An Irish Airman Foresees His Death

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	Erstellt von Aislinn B vor fast 11 Jahre