An Irish Airman foresees his Death - W. B. Yeats

The Pouges' rendition of the poem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Loq95zsixBk

Form
-Solliloquy

- 16 lines in continuous verse

- Regular rhyme - smooth regularity and indifference - no fear

- Iambic tetrameter

Language:- The language conveys the man's indifference to all sides "those that I fight I do not hate" - sense of detachment

- A sense of loneliness "no likely end could bring them loss" - no one cares about him

- No value to his life - "wasted breath"

- Pronouns "I" and "my" show that he cares only about himself - sense of isolation

Structure:

- caesura at the end of the poem slows the meter imitating the narrator thinking through his life.

- The caesura between "this life, this death" is used to show that the two are entirely incompatible and emphasises the juxtaposition

Tone:

- Pessimistic

- Willing on death

- Certainty

Reader response:-A modern audience would feel a sense of sympathy towards the narrator who appears to have nothing to live for

- Many young men at the time would be able to understand how the man felt, as they too experienced such disillusionment due to lacking a purpose in life

Links :
- Rendezvous - Willingness to die

- This is no Case of Petty Right or Wrong - Impartiality