Elevate your space with our personalized “A Prayer for My Daughter” wall art. Crafted with care, this inspiring decor serves as a meaningful gift, showering endless love and encouragement. Handcrafted for quality, it’s a timeless piece that resonates through generations. Read More English Summaries.
A Prayer for My Daughter Summary
A Prayer for My Daughter by William Butler Yeats Introduction
The poet is worried to see the devaluation of the worldly ways. He is worried about the safety of his new born daughter and solicits for her a life of beauty, accompanied by natural kindness and heart-winning courtesy. He wants his daughter to avoid hatred.
A Prayer for My Daughter Summary in English
The poet expresses concern for his infant daughter who is fast asleep in a cradle. The storm is blowing outside and it makes the poet gloomy. How will his daughter face the world which is becoming coarse and vulgur day by day? He imagines the war-drums which forecast the struggle for survival. The cruelty of man is greater than the murderous innocence of the sea. She must have a shield for protection. The shield stands for the qualities which the poet wants his daughter to cultivate.
The poet wishes her to have beauty but not vanity. Great beauties like Helen which here represents his girl-friend Maud Gonne and Venus the goddess of love stumbled into unhappy marriages on account of lack of courtesy and humility. Maud Gonne married MorBryde, a drunkard and a worthless fellow and Venus chose the lame god, Hephaestus as her husband. The poet wants his daughter to cultivate courtesy. A man who marries an inferior beauty may find his reward in the courtesy and kindness of her heart. This is more important than the physical beauty of a woman which catches the eye of a lover.
The third quality which the poet wants his daughter to cultivate is natural gladness which means the scattering of happiness and peace around. He gives the image of the growing laurel tree which gives comfort to all. One thing which he wants her to avoid is hatred. Hatred is the worst of all evils. The mind which is free from hatred can face the storms and misfortunes of the world.
Intellectual hatred is the worst of all. The poet mentions Maud Gonne a paragon of beauty who has wasted her aristocratic traditions in political arguments. If hatred is replaced by innocence and purity, it can bring joy and consolation to the individual. It will give his daughter an inner peace which cannot be disturbed by misfortune, agitation or opposition.
A Prayer for My Daughter Poem Summary
The poet wishes that his daughter may grow up and get married in an aristocratic family which observes traditional manners and courtesies. There is too much of arrogance and hatred in the common masses today. Beauty and innocence come from established custom and usage. ‘Ceremony’ is like the horn of plenty and custom is like the growing laurel tree providing shade and comfort to all.
The poet’s love for a traditional aristocratic life is quite obvious. This is the way of life which he wants his daughter to follow. His own experiences with the Irish masses had sadly disillusioned him. However, he had received sympathy from Lady Gregory. The aristocracy was for him a custodian of culture and moral values.