A Prayer for My Daughter

“A Prayer for my Daughter” has 10 stanzas: each stanza has eight lines (written in iambic pentameter or iambic tetrameter) and follows a loose rhyme scheme of AABBCDDC. The form could be considered a variation on ottava rima.

Yeats is a modernist and symbolist poet. The images he uses function as symbols and has multiple interpretations. On the surface, this poem is a father talking about what he wishes for his daughter, and was written shortly after the birth of Yeats’s daughter, Anne. A deeper interpretation is that the daughter is a symbol of Ireland as an independent nation, as Yeats’sdaughter was born the year the Irish War of Independence began, and Yeats was notable for his political beliefs.

In the first stanza, the first-person speaker of the poem—presumably Yeats—describes a storm that rages as his daughter sleeps. The storm can be read as both a natural phenomenon and a symbol for the Irish-English conflict. In the latter reading, the newborn daughter is a symbol for a new, free Ireland. The storm could also represent more universal trials that a father imagines a child might endure throughout their life. What stands between the ocean and the child’s home is minimal, so the storm causes the speaker to reflect and pray, while walking for an hour.

The second stanza begins with a repetition of the idea that the speaker is walking and praying for an hour as the wind hits the tower, bounding the more cerebral, associative, and didactic coming stanzas in a specific place and time. The speaker describes the wind fighting against manufactured structures—like the tower and bridge—as well as against natural elements, like elms above a stream. Trees are recurring symbols associated with the idea of a secure home. The speaker imagines the future coming out of “the murderous innocence of the sea” (Line 16). The sea itself does not hold malice or evil, but it is naturally dangerous; this makes it innocent and initiates the theme of innocence in the poem. In a political reading, the Irish Sea is what the English have to cross to fight the Irish; doing so corrupts the sea and makes it murderous rather than innocent.

The third stanza begins a discussion on beauty—another theme of the poem. Yeats prays his daughter will be only moderately beautiful because excessive physical beauty will attract attention from strangers and cause vanity. If a woman is too vain, she will “lose natural kindness” (Line 22) and be friendless. (“Friend” was often used to mean suitor in the time Yeats was writing, so a lack of friends includes the lack of a love interest.) Kindness is associated with an innocent nature, like the sea, while excessive beauty is associated with a manufactured item—a “looking-glass” (Line 19), which reflects like a body of water but is constructed rather than natural. Following the symbolism of the daughter as a newly independent Ireland, the “stranger” (Line 18) of this stanza could symbolically represent England or other colonial powers; Yeats does not want Ireland to seem attractive as a colony.

In the fourth stanza, the discussion of beauty continues with a long allusion to Greek mythology. Paris took Helen of Troy, kicking off the Trojan War which Yeats symbolically connects to the Irish War of Independence. The direct invocation of Helen’sname and that she “had much trouble from a fool” (Line 26) references Homer’s Illiad. The Greek mythological allusion is developed with the speaker discussing a sea-born“Queen” (Line 27)—Aphrodite—who Paris chose in his Judgement (being promised, Helen). Aphrodite, in turn, chose Hephaestus, “a bandy-legged smith” (Line 29): an unlikely suitor for the goddess of love and beauty. This stanza closes with the symbol of the Horn of Plenty: a cornucopia derived from the image of Amalthea (Zeus’sgoat-nurse). This symbol of bountiful beauty is undone by the “crazy” (Line 31) choices of excessively beautiful women. Yeats consistently uses Helen in his poetry to refer to the muse who rejected him—Maud Gonne.

The fifth stanza contrasts beauty with “courtesy” (Line 33). The speaker wants his daughter educated in manners rather than simply being beautiful. He argues that earning a heart with “kindness” (Line 40) will cause a man to be more loyal than if a man presents his heart as a gift due to overwhelming beauty. The moderately beautiful and kind woman in Yeats’s life is his wife, Georgie. The repetition of the man who is a “fool” (Line 36) for beauty harkens back to Paris and how his beauty-inspired decision caused a war. If the daughter is Ireland, Yeats does not want there to be prolonged fighting over her, but rather have her respected for her moderate manners or, in other words, diplomatically negotiated for an unbreakable alliance.

In the sixth stanza, the daughter is compared to a tree and her thoughts are compared to a bird called a linnet. This simile of the daughter as a “green laurel” (Line 47) goes back to Greek myth: The naiad Daphne is turned into this kind of tree to save her from Apollo’s unwanted advances. When reading the daughter as a symbol of Ireland, Apollo is England, and the transformation is “root[ing]” (Line 48) Ireland as a free nation. The linnet simile argues that a woman’s thoughts be focused on “merriment,” a word repeated as part of the anaphora, “Nor but in merriment[...]” (Lines 45-46). This comparison can be compared to sentiments in the Cult of True Womanhood, which argue for a particular kind of domestic femininity.

The seventh stanza begins with the speaker regretting loving excessively beautiful women because its stagnated his mind. He argues that being consumed by hate is a terrible “evil” (Line53). He returns to the bird simile: Having thoughts free of hatred will keep the wind from driving the bird from its home—the tree. The previous love of the speaker refers to Yeats’s relationship with Maud Gonne who rejected him before he married Georgie and had their daughter Anne. Gone was a radical freedom fighter for Ireland (aligned with Catholics), and Georgie had a more moderate (Protestant) political outlook. Yeats is using the symbol of the daughter as Ireland to argue for a less radical—less “hatred”-filled (Line 54)—the path towards lasting independence.

In the eighth stanza, the focus narrows to a specific kind of animosity: hateful opinions. Yeats reverts to the symbol of “Plenty’s horn” (Line 60) to refer to a bounty of beauty that is traded for “accursed” (Line 58) opinions, which references Gonne’s “opinionated” (Line61) nature. He hopes his daughter will be of a “quiet nature” (Line63)—more like her mother, Georgie—rather than an “angry wind” (Line64).In addition to a seen-not-heard ideal of womanhood, the repetition of the word “wind” (Lines5, 10, 55, 64,71) calls back to the storm as a symbol for the war beginning between England and Ireland.

The ninth stanza returns to the theme of innocence: here, it is a “radical innocence” (Line66) of the soul that can be rediscovered by abandoning hatred. Without hate, the soul is “self-delighting, / Self-appeasing, self-affrighting” (Lines67-68). The repetition of “self” in these hyphenated words develops the reading of the (daughter’s) soul as Ireland seeking self-governance in the War of Independence. This is echoed in the next line about “its own sweet will is Heaven’s will” (Line69); Ireland, independent from England, would be able to explore its religious, social, and political will. The stanza closes with the daughter maintaining happiness in the face of “windy” (Line 71) howls because she has given update to listen to her soul.

In the tenth and final stanza, the speaker/father prays his daughter will find a husband and a good home: This home is absent of hatred, but full of custom and ceremony. The ceremony is defined as the Horn of Plenty, and custom is the laurel tree, imbuing yet another layer of meaning upon these symbols. The speaker believes innocence and beauty spring from custom and ceremony, respectively. Custom and ceremony are also qualities associated with the societies of nations and speak to the new independent home Ireland hope to find. The future husband could be considered the leader of the nation when the daughter is ready a free Ireland.