Topic > The Mastery of Poetry by William Butler Yeats

The most unlikely way to die is not knowing where the fatal blow came from. Fighting for what is right is not always wrong; fighting for something wrong is not always right. But fulfilling your duties as a soldier for your country is always right. 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 push his words through each of us to say that pilots fly from within and not from any outside influence. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayYeats writes the poem as if he were the aviator, about to meet his end. The first two lines prepare the reader for what lies ahead; the pilot will die. Yeats does not dwell on this point because he has more important thoughts to express, so he moves on to establish the pilot's motivations. The pilot chose to fly and fight in the war, not because he hated the Imperial Germans, or because he loved his country; and he didn't do it for fame or fortune. The pilot flew for only one reason; the pure joy of flying. With the phrase “I have balanced everything, I have remembered everything,” Yeats begins to tell the reader what Major Gregory has to tell us about life and death. In it, Yeats is not simply saying that Major Gregory saw his life pass before his eyes. In reality, and especially in that moment before death, all that matters is the present. Maybe that moment before death is the only time you can truly realize it and believe it with all your heart. Because it's hard to look at your life without hoping that it will be better in the future or thinking about "how good it was back when!" But what Yeats is trying to convey is that every moment could be your last, so live it until it is fullest. Live as you mean it! Each line of this poem has different meanings in which it conveys to us the deeper meanings of Yeats's feelings towards the world and war As in the line, Those whom I fight I do not hate. The Irish here love all people 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 line, Those I protect I do not In this sense, even if the Irish are on England's side, they do not care about the English, but they must protect them and work with them. Since the English ruled the Irish, they must fight as if England were their country But the voice of the poem seems to come from this verse; No probable end could bring them loss or leave them happier than before. This phrase speaks for all the Irish people. It's as if these people no longer feel emotions. They have been stifled by the English for so long that they have become impassive. While the second part of the line conveys the mentality of these people because it says that no matter how the war ends, they won't care. None of them understand war. William Butler Yeats uses an interesting yet simple rhyme scheme to lay out his thoughts for us to perceive. The poem uses a very simple rhyme structure, with every other line rhyming. The simplistic rhyme scheme is used to emphasize the pilot's simple outlook on life and the simple desires he has. This simple structure does not hinder the meaning of the poem and allows the reader to clearly see what Yeats means. Another literary device used by Yeats is imagery. In this poem, important images occur more than once. One of these images is "clouds". It places emphasis on the fact that all this for",.