A Prayer for my Daughter' by W.B.Yeats

A Prayer for my Daughter' by W.B.Yeats

      This is a poem in which Yeats prays for the happiness and well-being of his daughter, who has just been born.  The poet is slightly upset as he thinks with apprehension about the collapse of modern civilization.  While the poet's mind is stormy with this fear the child is calmly sleeping in the cradle.  The thought about the dangers awaiting the child frightens him.  The poet listens to the ominous howling of the storm in his mind as he thinks of the dangers his daughter may be exposed to. The gloomy poet walks up and down and prays for his daughter.  As he listens to the stormy wind he thinks the prophetic vision described in his poem "The second Coming" is at hand.

          

  Then there follows a skillful description of the kind of beauty that is not desirable in a woman – beauty that makes a stranger crazy or that makes a woman exult at her reflection in the mirror.  The poet prays that his daughter may have beauty, but not excessive beauty.  He knows that too much beauty in a woman will land her in danger.  He knows that fabulous beauty goes with an empty mind.  The poet makes suggestive allusions to Helen who had "much trouble from a fool" and Venus who chose "a bandy-legged smith" as her husband.  From both these stories the poet draws a realistic and at the same time entertaining moral:

                        It's certain that fine women eat

                        A crazy salad with their meat

                        Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone.

           

 So the poet wishes and prays that his daughter may be granted moderate beauty. Yeats's next prayer is that his daughter should grow up like a laurel tree with linnets singing on its branches.  The laurel tree represents luxuriant growth and peace and harmony.  While the birds stand for joy.  She should bring joy to those around her just as the birds provide joy to people.  The poet wants her daughter to become free from hatred.  The poet knows that intellectual hatred is great evil and can make the mind hollow.  The soul is the fountain of joy and peace and so if she can attune her will to the will of God, she need not have any fear about anything.  As the radical innocence of the soul is the highest form of spiritual development, Yeasts asks his daughter to recover it.  It is a gift from heaven and no earthly temptations can subdue her.

            Yeats's next wish is that his daughter should not become a political fanatic.  Fanaticism will create hatred and ill will and a woman with these vices will become incapable of using the gifts conferred on her.  No doubt, the poet is referring to Maud Gonne, the talented and beautiful lady whom Yeats loved.  She rejected him and married John Macbride, another political fanatic.  According to the poet, she wrecked her life and caused misery to her friends and relatives.  It was vanity and hatred that threw her life into confusion.  It is Yeats's wish that his daughter should not devote herself to any impersonal cause, sacrificing all other values in life.

      Yeats prays that her daughter be endowed with courtesy which he considers as the queen of all virtues.  Courteous behaviour can win over hearts.  Ceremoniousness is another quality that the poet wishes her daughter to possess.  According to him ceremony alone will engender innocence and beauty.  The poet makes references to Maud Gonne in several places in the poem.  This shows the poet's inordinate love foe her.  She rejected his love and chose to dedicate herself to the cause of Irish Independence.  Later though she married another political fanatic, John Macbride, she did not have a happy married life.  It is the poet's prayer that his daughter should not have similar experiences.

            The poem contains many heart-warming lines expressive of affection, humanity, generosity, optimism, good cheer, amiability etc.  Besides, we find several examples of the felicity of word and phrase: "the murderous innocence of the sea", "an old bellows full of angry wind", "rooted in one dear perpetual place" etc. are examples.  We also get a bit of moralizing which has its own appeal:  "an intellectual hatred is the worst."

                        "Ceremony's s the name for the rich horn

                        And custom for the spreading laurel tree."

            "A prayer for my Daughter" is a poem full of practical wisdom, moral philosophy and beauty.