“An Irish Airman Forsees His Death”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” manuscript draft
1918
Yeats’s third poem on Robert Gregory does not mention him by name. This almost-sonnet of two perfectly balanced eight-line units intimates that Robert anticipated and even embraced the likelihood of his death in action; the “lonely impulse of delight” he found as a pilot not only transcended political motivations but made even his personal past and future seem inconsequential. Even though the poem acknowledges Robert’s love for his home place (“My country is Kiltartan cross”), it can hardly have given comfort to Gregory, who never commented upon it, publicly or privately.
: Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
: Lady Gregory collection of papers
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