A Prayer for My Daughter

“A Prayer for my Daughter” was written in 1919, at the beginning of the Irish War of Independence. Three years prior, in 1916, was the Easter Rising, when the Irish stood up against British rule (Yeats’spoem “Easter, 1916” is about this event). The Irish Republicans were unable to break away from British rule at this time, but in 1919, the Irish again declared independence. Throughout his life, Yeats was an Irish Nationalist; by the time the Irish War of Independence began, Yeats had married Georgie Hyde-Leeswhogavebirth to their daughter, Anne.

Earlier in his life, Yeats had more radical political leanings and was part of the Irish republican Brotherhood. His involvement with Irish revolutionaries and occultists was associated with his relationship to Maud Gonne. After Gonne rejected his repeated marriage proposals, Yeats’spolitical leanings became more conservative. MarryingGeorgie and fathering Anne bolstered his initial mixed feelings about Gonne’s husband’s use of violence in the Easter Uprising. “A Prayer for my Daughter” explores Yeats’sdistaste for violence—or “hate” as he repeatedly refers to it in the poem—and the shifting of his political leanings. However, the poem illustrates his ongoing desire for a free Ireland for his daughter as well as having symbolic representation.