A Prayer for My Daughter - Literary Devices

A Prayer for My Daughter
by William Butler Yeats

Once more the storm is howling, and 1/2 hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
My baby sleeps on. There isn't any obstacle
But Gregory’s wooden and one naked hill
Whereby the haystack- and roof-leveling wind.
Bred at the Atlantic, can be stayed;
And for an hour I even have walked and prayed
Because of the top notch gloom this is in my mind.

I actually have walked and prayed for this young baby an hour
And heard the ocean-wind scream upon the tower,
And under the arches of the bridge, and scream
In the elms above the flooded stream;
Imagining in excited reverie
That the future years had come,
Dancing to a frenzied drum,
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.

May she be granted beauty and yet now not
Beauty to make a stranger’s eye distraught,
Or hers earlier than a looking-glass, for such,
Being made stunning overmuch,
Consider splendor a sufficient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses proper, and never find a friend.

Helen being chosen located existence flat and dull
And later had much hassle from a fool,
While that remarkable Queen, that rose out of the spray,
Being fatherless should have her way
Yet selected a bandy-legged smith for guy.
It’s certain that first-class ladies eat
A loopy salad with their meat
Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone.

In courtesy I’d have her chiefly learned;
Hearts aren't had as a gift but hearts are earned
By the ones that aren't entirely beautiful;
Yet many, that have performed the fool
For beauty’s very self, has attraction made wise,
And many a poor guy that has roved,
Loved and thought himself beloved,
From a happy kindness cannot take his eyes.

May she end up a flourishing hidden tree
That all her thoughts may like the linnet be,
And don't have any business however meting out round
Their magnanimities of sound,
Nor but in merriment start a chase,
Nor but in merriment a quarrel.
O may additionally she live like some green laurel
Rooted in one dear perpetual place.

My mind, because the minds that I actually have loved,
The form of beauty that I have approved,
Prosper however little, has dried up of late,
Yet is aware of that to be filled with hate
May nicely be of all evil chances chief.
If there’s no hatred in a mind
Assault and battery of the wind
Can never tear the linnet from the leaf.

An highbrow hatred is the worst,
So permit her think evaluations are accursed.
Have I no longer seen the loveliest female born
Out of the mouth of Plenty’s horn,
Because of her opinionated mind
Barter that horn and each exact
By quiet natures understood
For an antique bellows complete of angry wind?

Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at closing that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its very own candy will is Heaven’s will;
She can, although every face have to scowl
And each windy area howl
Or every bellows burst, be happy still.

And might also her bridegroom convey her to a house
Where all’s accustomed, ceremonious;
For vanity and hatred are the wares
Peddled within the thoroughfares.
How but in custom and in ceremony
Are innocence and beauty born?
Ceremony’s a name for the wealthy horn,
And custom for the spreading laurel tree.

Literary Analysis
“A Prayer for My Daughter” is a reflection of the poet’s love for his daughter. It is likewise approximately surviving the turmoil of the cutting-edge world, where passions have been separated from reason. The setting of the poem is unspecified. The speaker is the poet himself speakme to his daughter. The tone is gloomy, precarious, and frightening, in addition to didactic.

The poem opens with a description of the speaker praying for his innocent little one daughter, Anne, lying in the middle of a storm “howling, and half hid.” The poet demonstrates his feelings through using symbols of weather. The new child baby girl is sleeping “Under this cradle-hood and coverlid,” implying the innocence and vulnerability of Anne. Though the outside world is violent, she is blanketed from it. The storm is a metaphor for the Irish human beings’s war for their independence, which turned into an unsure political state of affairs in Yeats’s day. He in addition offers the scenario of the typhoon with “roof-leveling wind”, representing turbulence, within the midst of which the poet has “walked and prayed for this young toddler an hour.” Intense and threatening forces surround her like a “flooded stream.” The poet symbolizes the ocean thus: “Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.” Despite his apprehensions for his infant in this turbulent international, he is eager for her.

The poet continues on to touch upon his hopes for her splendor:“May she be granted beauty and yet not.” His vacillation is that beauty in girls now and again brings disasters. For example, a few such humans have a hard time selecting the right person as a existence partner, and neither they can “find a friend.” The speaker lays emphasis on the want for feminine innocence. The poet advances his argument within the next stanzas by using bringing up examples of beautiful girls consisting of Helen of Troy, whose splendor become said to be the cause of the Trojan War. By the end, the poet wishes his daughter to be courteous, as love cannot come unconditionally and freely. She ought to earn love with accurate efforts and kind-heartedness, and she can not win it through merely physical beauty due to the fact “Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned.” Summing up his theme, the poet desires his daughter to possess such qualities that might assist her face the destiny years confidently and independently.

Structural Analysis
The poem is written in a lyric form containing ten stanzas with eight strains in each stanza. The poem follows a ordinary rhyme scheme, that is AABBCDDC as shown below:

I even have walked and prayed for this young child an hour A
And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower, A
And-below the arches of the bridge, and scream B
In the elms above the flooded stream; B
Imagining in excited reverie C
That the future years had come, D
Dancing to a frenzied drum, D
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea. C

The meter of this poem alternates among iambic pentameter and trochaic pentameter, as in “I even have walked and prayed for this young toddler an hour / And heard the ocean-wind scream upon the tower.” The poem is wealthy in literary devices along with symbolism, personification, paradox, sibilance, assonance, alliteration, and onomatopoeia. The line “murderous innocence of the ocean” is an example of paradox. Sibilance is observed inside the words “sea-wind scream,” while “scream” is also an example of an onomatopoeia. The use of personification may be mentioned inside the traces “future years … dancing”, which suggests the transience of life. The poet uses symbols together with “sea wind” and “flooded stream” which denote turbulent forces at work. Alliteration is present inside the phrase “be granted beauty.”

Guidance for Usage of Quotes
The poem is concerned with the chaotic modern global. It shows a father fed on with apprehension for his daughter’s future in an uncertain political state of affairs. The father is tense about how he can possibly guard his daughter from the raging storm outside, due to the fact she is very beautiful. Therefore, he prays for her as well as offers advice about how to live effectively on earth. Similarly, current-day fathers can send fees from this poem to their daughters as a bit of recommendation for unique occasions:

“In courtesy I’d have her chiefly learned;
Hearts are not had as a gift however hearts are earned
By those that are not entirely beautiful;
Yet many, which have performed the fool
For beauty’s very self, has appeal made wise,
And many a terrible man that has roved,
Loved and concept himself beloved,
From a happy kindness can not take his eyes.”