A Prayer for My Daughter

A Prayer for My Daughter By William Butler Yeats

                                                              

William Butler Yeats, the esteemed Irish poet, was not only a poet but also a dramatist and prose writer, distinguished by his Nobel Prize in the literary field. His works remain some of the most celebrated in English Literature. Yeats's personal life, notably his unrequited love for Maud Gonne, a woman of beauty and intellect with an intense nature, greatly influenced his poetry. Despite his efforts to win her affection, he faced rejection and eventually married George Hyde. However, it was his daughter Anne Butler Yeats who inspired him to pen the heartfelt poem "Prayer for my Daughter."


The poem opens with Yeats expressing the concerns and worries typical of any father for the future well-being of his daughter. The imagery of a "Storm" in the first stanza not only reflects the tumultuous emotions within the poet but also symbolizes the challenges his daughter may encounter in her life ahead. Yeats wishes for his daughter's future to be free from obstacles and filled with security.

In the subsequent stanza, the poet offers prayers for his daughter's resilience, likening her future trials to the relentless force of the sea's winds. He imagines the years ahead as marked by a drumbeat, suggesting both excitement and potential danger. The innocence of the sea is juxtaposed with the innocence of his daughter's life, reminding us of the sea's capacity for both tranquility and destruction.


As the poem progresses, Yeats articulates his hopes and fears for his daughter's future. He desires for her to possess beauty without it becoming a distraction or a source of pride. He warns against the dangers of choosing superficial charm over inner virtue, drawing from his own experiences and observations of the world.

Throughout the poem, Yeats emphasizes the importance of his daughter's character and values. He wishes for her to lead a life of peace, contentment, and kindness, free from the intellectual rigidity that can lead to unhappiness. He hopes that she will find happiness and self-respect through maintaining a sense of radical innocence, even in the face of adversity.

In the closing stanza, Yeats expresses his desire for his daughter to marry into a family that values tradition and ceremony, ensuring her future happiness and security. Ultimately, "Prayer for my Daughter" encapsulates the universal hopes and fears of a father for his beloved child, echoing themes of love, protection, and guidance that resonate across generations.    

                    

    Thus he prays that god should grant his daughter with beauty but the beauty of his daughter should not distract strangers mind and her beauty should not running “Natural Kindness” of his daughter. Yeats wants his daughter paused with some qualities so that she can be able to face. The future years independently with confidence her beauty should not be of kind which may either make her proud of her beauty or distract Stranger mind. The result will be that the pride will make her loose all her kind feeling to have exclusive beauty is sometimes mind distracting because one cannot make right choice out of pride of beauty and can never find a friend in the true sense.

                         

  She should not be like those craft women who employ their charm “To use the people to their advantage he does not want his daughter to fail in choosing the persons with whom she will be friendly.

               

The fourth stanza delves into the poet's fear of his daughter becoming like Helen of Troy, whose beauty led her astray. He emphasizes the importance of her choosing a partner who values her virtues over her appearance, echoing his own grief over beautiful women who marry unwisely. 

  Poet expresses his grief that how beautiful women choose “A Crazy Salad” (understanding husband to go with their meal (richness of the men). The poet does not want her daughter to be one such women.

   In the fifth stanza, the poet stresses the importance of inner beauty and warns against being deceived by superficial charm. He wishes for his daughter to possess both outer and inner beauty, knowing that inner qualities endure.

                 

   In the six stanzas the poet wants his daughter to be like a flourishing tree and to grow like a beautiful women and he wants the beauty may stay with her for the rest of the life. Her thoughts should be peaceful, positive and pour like that of a little “Linnet Bird” like the bird is must not want more than what is natural and normal. She should not find pleasure in quarrel and in chase. She always should feel satisfied with what she has. He wants his daughter to settle down well in one place like “Green laurel” therefore this stanza describes the qualities that the poet‘s daughter should pazeses

  In the seven stanza the [poet mention about his love once the poet fall in love with wrong women and she did not understand loyal and true feeling of the poets mind dried up and he also talks about how his heart filled with hatred due to wrong women he loved . He considered this as Evil think than he tells that if there is not hatred in a person’s mind that person will be fortunate and safe he wants his daughter to prazes the kindness that can never allow any evil think to happen.

 In the eight stanza the poet talks about intellectual hatred which is the worst think .He does not want his daughter to become opinionated .He has a made a direct contrast between quite nature and opinionated mind .He does not want his daughter to be opinionated as she may lose her loved once out of rigidness therefore he prays to god to bless her with quiet nature.

  In the nine stanza the poet talks about “Radical innocence” he tells that a soul become innocent when all anger and hatred has been driven away and without hatred a women learns to be happy soothed and respect herself. Even when everyone around her goes against her or scowls she still can be happy and therefore to maintain the radical innocence is very important as it soothes our soul.

 In the last stanza the poet wants his daughter to marry a groom who takes her to a house with custom and ceremony there should be no space for hatred and arrogance. So that his daughter can live peacefully and by marrying a cultured man her future gets secured in her house ceremony should be like rich horn and custom should be laurel tree.

 Thus the poet wishes all the happiness for her daughter and at the same time he wants his daughter to be full of merits.

  The poem portrays how a father who has been blessed with a beautiful daughter and he is worried regard safe and secure future of his daughter.