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Essay / Mastering the Poetry of William Butler Yeats
The most unlikely way to die is not knowing where the death blow came from. Fighting for what is right is not always wrong; fighting over something wrong is not always right. But fulfilling your duties as a soldier for your country is always a good thing. Throughout our lives, each of us has been given a daunting task that we do not take lightly. In Yeats' poem, An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, Yeats uses imagery to propel his words through each of us to say that pilots fly from within and not from outside influence. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Yeats writes the poem as if he were the aviator, about to die. The first two lines prepare the reader for what awaits them; the pilot will die. Yeats doesn't leave it at this point because he has more important thoughts to convey, so he moves on to establishing the pilot's motivations. The pilot chose to fly and fight in the war, not because he hated the Imperial Germans, nor because he loved his country; and he didn't do it for fame or fortune. The pilot flew for one reason only: the pure pleasure of flying. With the phrase “I have balanced everything, brought everything to mind,” Yeats begins to tell the reader what Major Gregory has to tell us about life and death. In it, Yeats does not simply say that Major Gregory saw his life flash before his eyes. In reality, and especially at this moment before death, all that matters is the present. Perhaps this moment before death is the only moment when one can truly realize it and believe in it wholeheartedly. Because it is difficult to look at your own life without hoping that it will be better in the future or without thinking about “how nice it was when!” » But what Yeats is trying to convey is that any moment can be your last, so live it for it's fullest. Live the way you want! Each of the lines in this poem contains different meanings that convey to us the deeper meanings of Yeats's feelings towards the world and war. As in the line, Those I fight, I don't hate. The Irish love everyone here and have a hard time understanding why they have to fight for something they don't believe in. While this may be true, it also has the exact opposite, as in the phrase “Those I keep, I keep not.” Along these lines, while the Irish are on England's side, they don't care about the English, but they must protect them and work with them. Because the English ruled the Irish, they must fight as if England were their own country. But the voice of the poem seems to come from this line: no probable end could bring them loss or make them happier than before. This line speaks for all the Irish people. It's as if these people no longer have any emotions. They were suppressed by the British for so long that they became impassive. While the second part of the line expresses the mindset of these people, as it says that no matter how the war ends, they don't care. None of them understand war. William Butler Yeats uses an interesting but simple rhyme system to express his thoughts for us to perceive. The poem uses a very simple rhyme structure, with every other rhyme. The simplistic rhyming pattern is used to emphasize the pilot's simple outlook on life and his simple wishes. This simple structure does not hinder the meaning of the poem and allows the reader to clearly see what Yeats means. Another",.