An Irish Airman Foresees His Death (Themes)

Themes

Patriotism

It is clear that the pilot, serving in Britain’s Royal Air Force, does not feel patriotism in the traditional sense of the word: he neither loves the ones he protects nor hates those he fights. He does feel a sense of identity, but it is with the people of Ireland, specifically those of Kiltartan. The reason this does not seem to make sense to the reader is that the political situation he lives under has split the word patriotism into two meanings. Usually, we think of a patriot as fighting for his or her own country. In this case, though, because Ireland is under British control, the country that the airman is fighting for is one country, while his country is a completely different one to him. One imagines that much in colonial life must have created this sort of dilemma, with citizens owing their loyalty to both the government over their heads and also a distant government across the sea. Yeats has dramatized this situation to its fullest by putting the airman in a life-or-death situation. The poem also makes the situation as pathetic as it could be by having the airman lay down his life for the country in which he does not believe. It is arguable whether this approach would be as effective in stirring Irish patriotism as well as a straightforward, pro-Irish poem would, but Yeats was writing about an actual occurrence, and this issue of dual loyalty (or loyalty versus affection) certainly is worth being examined.

Fate

The power of this poem lies in its first line: the speaker is not trying to beat his fate, nor is he trying to make things work out to his advantage. He is so certain that he will die that he uses the term “meet my fate” to mean the same thing as “die,” accepting the fact that he has no other possible fate except dying. The reader is meant to see this sort of fatalism as depressing; it should shock us and give us a sense of waste to find out that a young, healthy man feels that he has nothing left to live for or look forward to. For the poem’s speaker, though, knowing his fate is actually a blessing. Freed of his responsibility to make the world better in the future or preserve the life he has known, he is able to act spontaneously — to follow “a lonely impulse of delight” by flying off into the clouds.

Yeats is bending the rules of reality by making the speaker so absolutely certain of his fate: the ability to predict the future is always flawed by the fact that something unexpected could come up. On the other hand, the poet does support the speaker’s certainty by telling us that he has thought this through completely, “brought all to mind.” We are not told exactly why his past and future are so pointless, but we are given a pretty good guess in lines 3 and 4 and also in lines 7 and 8. It was the political situation that made an Irishman fight for Britain that made his life worthless and left him ready to die.

Obedience

Given how strongly this poem makes the point that its speaker does not hate those that he fights, love those he protects, or hope to benefit those that he does love, readers justifiably wonder why this man is in the air force. The most obvious answer would be that he is flying a plane because it is fun, which would be another way of stating what the poem calls an “impulse of delight.” This makes more sense when we consider how new flight was in 1918: while we take flight for granted as a mode of transportation today, it seemed like a metaphor for unattached freedom to the first people to witness airplanes above them in the sky. If Yeats’s point was to associate being Irish with flying free in the sky, though, it proves to be a bit naive. First, the speaker’s lack of love for Britain does not change the fact thr he is being just as obedient as any Londoner who is in the service out of a sense of patriotic duty. The poet seems to feel that the lack of commitment an Irishman feels is the important thing, but to the British Royal Air Force, the important thing is that he follows commands. Also, saying that an “impulse” led the speaker to this moment oversimplifies the process of military training and flight training. Knowledge of the real world tells us that this speaker has been much more obedient to the British cause than the poem cares to discuss.

Topics for Further Study

• This poem is about a pilot who joined the war, not to fight, but for the sheer exhilaration of flying a plane at a time when flight was new. Yeats concentrates on war and politics, but he does not give any in-depth description of what the speaker must feel like when flying. Try to capture that feeling in a poem.
• Randall Jarrell’s poem “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” published during World War II uses more concrete imagery to shock the reader about the senselessness of war. What is the same in the ideas these two poems have about war? What is different? Explain why you think the two poets chose to write about aviators. What does Yeats’s pilot say about flying that Jarrell’s gunner would disagree with?
• During the First World War, many Irish citizens were reluctant to participate in a war that they felt was chiefly England’s concern, and many Irishmen who enlisted in the Royal Air Force had to explain themselves to hostile relatives and friends. Do you think many young men, like the one in this poem, joined the Air Force in spite of their political beliefs? Do you think people join the Armed Services today for similar reasons? explain.