A Prayer for my Daughter

It is important to read this poem alongside another famous poem by Yeats, which was actually written just a few months before this poem, "The Second Coming." In this earlier work, Yeats sets out his prophecy of doom and gloom, anticipating the "Mere anarchy" and "blood-dimmed tide" that was set loose on the world due to political changes such as the Russian Revolution and the rise of fascism. Many critics view "A Prayer for My Daughter" as being a discussion of how to live and transcend such disturbing events.

The poem begins with an account of the speaker praying for his daughter in the midst of a "howling" storm because of a "great gloom" that dominates his mind. Having effectively prophesied a massive upheaval in the world order, now that he has a daughter, Yeats is concerned about the kind of world that she will grow up in. Note how the violence of nature finds a parallel in the violence that is to come as the speaker in the second stanza imagines the future years "Dancing to a frenzied drum" as the storm rages outside.

He prays that his daughter will develop the kind of characteristics that the women he loved did not possess. His former lover, Maud Gonne, was beautiful and aware of it and also fired by nationalistic fervour. Yeats prays that his daughter, by contrast, will be given beauty, but not too much, because too much beauty can lead to vanity and an inability to relate to others. He wishes her to learn "courtesy" and hopes that she can have a life marked by stability and security, becoming a "flourishing hidden tree." Above all he wants her to marry into a home where tradition dominates, for as he says:

How but in custom and in ceremony 
Are innocence and beauty born? 
Ceremony's a name for the rich horn, 
And custom for the spreading laurel tree.

In an uncertain world with an uncertain future, therefore, Yeats seems to argue that the disturbing changes in the world can be overcome through a life lived focusing on traditional values and the importance of human kindness.

We can assume that W.B. Yeats' experiences have served to influence the things he wishes for his daughter in the poem, "A Prayer for My Daughter."

The first thing Yeats wishes is that his daughter will be given beauty, but not the kind that will distract others or herself—that others might become "distraught" by her beauty, or that shemight become too preoccupied with her own image in the mirror. For some people, beauty becomes more important than anything and the pursuit of beauty leads one to believe that having it means that nothing else is important in life. For some, having beauty robs them of "natural kindness," as well as honest "intimacy," which allow one to make the right choices—rather than to idolize beauty to the extent of all else, and not ever be able to find a true friend.

Yeats alludes to famous women who were considered beautiful, and that life wasn't actually so great for them. He speaks of Helen of Troy and Venus, the goddess of love. Yeats knows that beauty is fleeting: what he wishes for his daughter is to have knowledge or "have her chiefly learned..." of "courtesy."

Yeats has experience the pain that accompanies great beauty in a woman, in his love for Maud Gonne (an "actress and political activist"). While beautiful, this woman (who he met at twenty-two and wooed for almost thirty years) did not have the special qualities of the woman who Yeats ultimately married, Georgie Hyde-Lees. Gonne's beauty brought her no satisfaction, and left Yeats greatly frustrated:

Yeats suggests that kindness and generosity breed trust and affection between people. Yeats would also wish his daughter a life of stability and deep-rootedness—that is, a quiet life away from noisy thoroughfares.

Yeats did not want his daughter deeply involved with the very things that seemed in his mind to be distressful:

..."intellectual, political, financial, or emotional struggle."

He wanted his daughter to think less about her appearance and "cultivate her own personal worth...and her soul." Yeats' experiences with Gonne and then his wife showed two very different women, and based upon his relationships with both women, he seemed to believe that the characteristics his wife had were the qualities most admirable, and those he hoped his daughter would also have also.

In this poem we see yeats in the role of an anxious father brooding over his young daughter's future. the storm that howls outside is symbolic of the turbulent times in which Yeats lived. The future to Yeats is an apocalyptic vision. Yeats wants his daughter to inherit the traits and and a character that would allow her to lead a complete and fulfilling life in the world. he wants her to be beautiful but not to the exten 'to make a strnager's eye disraught,/Or hers before a looking-glass'. An excess of beauty is rather a curse than a blessing because not only does it deceive those who look upon it but also its possesor.

It’s interesting that the first request and also the large portion of the poem have to do with the daughter’s looks, and not who she is as a person. Although the way Yeats sees it, the two go hand-in-hand. He believes the beauty has the ability to corrupt (both his daughter and everyone around her).

Yeats cites the example of Helen of Troy and of Aphrodite(Venus) to drive in this point.The father shudders at the thought of her daughter turning out to be like Helen who couldn't hepl being unfaithful as she was so beautiful. He goes on to say that some lovely women like the Queen, who didn't have an imposing father who would restrain her, chose an ordinaty smith instead of marrying a hansome yet virtuous man matching her social standing.

Yeats says he would ; have her chiefly learned;/ Hearts are not had as gifts but hearts are earned' He wishes his daughter to be humble and like a 'flourishing hidden tree'. He wants her to be rooted in the same social class of her family. She shouldn't be crafty like some women who employ their charms to use people to their advantage. He mentions that it is a woman's compassion that enamours a man in the end.

Yeats then appears to take a very conservative outmoded view of wome.He speaks of how “intellectual hatred is the worst” (57). This is a curious pronouncement which he clarifies in the next line: “So let her think opinions are accursed” (58). Thus Yeats seemingly wants his daughter to have few thoughts and opinions of her own. He later wishes that “she can… be happy still” in the face of great adversity (65-67). This conjures pictures of the stereotypical 1950′s house wife to the modern reader. A quiet, respectful woman who knows her place in the home and family. While this would be quite an anachronism for Yeats, it nevertheless can be interpreted by a modern mind as overly conservative. Yeats seals this conservative attitude with “how but in custom and in ceremony are innocence and beauty born?” (72-73)

MH