A Prayer for My Daughter

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1919

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter: Ottava Rima Variation

“A Prayer for my Daughter” can be considered a variation on the Italian ottava rima form because of Yeats’seight-line stanzas. Sir Thomas Wyatt (who also popularized the Italian sonnet in English in the early English Renaissance) introduced this form of eight-line stanzas with 11-syllable lines to English poetry. Lord Byron (George Gordon) used a 10-syllable variation in Don Juan.

Unlike the classic ottava rima form of 11-syllable lines—which Yeats uses in “Among School Children”—the lines of “A Prayer for my Daughter” are iambic pentameter (Lines1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 of each stanza) or iambic tetrameter (Lines 4, 6, and 7 of each stanza). Scholars such as Robert Einarsson argue the meter can be read in rhythmical motifs rather than using standard metrical devices.

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDDC

Yeats also deviates from the classic ottava rima rhyme scheme in “A Prayer for my Daughter.” Again, his poem “Among School Children” follows the classic ABABABCC rhyme scheme, but “A Prayer for my Daughter” follows a AABBCDDC scheme: two rhyming couplets and a quatrain of enclosed rhyme in each stanza. However, in both poems, Yeats uses slant rhyme.

Couplets are often used to interlock the content of the rhymed lines. For instance, in stanza three, the first couplet is about beauty and how others perceive it: “a stranger’s eye” (Line18). In the second couplet, the focus changes to the daughter’s perspective: “hers before a looking-glass” (Line 19).

The quatrain then shifts to consequences. In stanza three, the quatrain explains that vanity, “Consider[ing] beauty a sufficient end” (Line21), will lead to becoming unkind, an absence of intimacy, and winding up alone rather than with “friend[s]” (Line24).

This pattern can be seen in most stanzas: Quatrains generally begin with words that depict causal relationships—like “For” (Lines 37, 64, 75), “Because”(Lines8, 61), or “May” (Lines 17, 41, 53)—and the paired couplets often contain meditations on two figures, such as Helen and Aphrodite in stanza four.

Repetition

In addition to repeating words as themes or symbols, Yeats uses repetition of initial phrases of a sentence (anaphora) as well as initial sounds of words (alliteration). In stanza six, Yeats repeats “Nor but in merriment” at the beginning of Lines five and six; this anaphora emphasizes that the quality of “merriment” (Lines 5-6) is key to his daughter finding a secure home.

Yeats’s alliteration complements his use of rhyme by repeating sounds at both the beginning of words and at the end. In the first couplet, Yeats has two interlocking sets of alliteration alongside the rhyme: “the storm is howling, and half hid / Under this cradle-hood and coverlid” (Lines 1-2). Here, the repeated “h” sound continues into the second alliteration of “c,” interlacing the pattern of consonance over Lines one and two with the rhyme of-id at the ends of these lines.

Hyphenated Words: Pseudo-Kennings

Yeats uses a number of hyphenated words suggestive of kennings. A strict kenning comes from Old English poetry and is two or more nouns connected by a hyphen creating an alternative expression for something that already exists. Yeats uses compound words that do and do not follow all of these rules. In addition to “sea-wind” (Line10), which could be considered a more traditional kenning, Yeats uses hyphenated words as adjectives, such as“roof-levelling wind” (Line 5) and “heart-revealing intimacy” (Line23). These modify existing nouns rather than replace them as traditional kennings would. The hyphenation Yeats uses gives the language of the poem a mythical quality fitting with his direct allusions to Greek mythology.