General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: RJH57 on March 19, 2016, 10:31:01 PM
Title: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
Post by: RJH57 on March 19, 2016, 10:31:01 PM
"An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by William Butler Yeats: ============================================== I know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate Those that I guard I do not love; My country is Kiltartan Cross, My countrymen Kiltartan's poor, No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before. Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, Nor public men, nor cheering crowds, A lonely impulse of delight Drove to this tumult in the clouds; I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death.
---------------------------------------------------------- The Irish airman in this poem is Major Robert Gregory (1881-1918) from County Galway, only child of Yeats’s friend Lady Augusta Gregory. He had joined the war effort in 1915, becoming a member of the 4th Connaught Rangers, transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1916. He became a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur in 1917, and was awarded a Military Cross for "conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty." He was killed on 23 January 1918 near Grossa, Padua, Italy at the age of 36 when an Italian pilot mistakenly shot him down. Robert's death had a lasting effect on poet W. B. Yeats. In elegizing him, Yeats focuses on the “lonely impulse of delight” that drove him to enlist in the British Royal Flying Corps and distinguishes his heroic solitude from patriotic duty and other common motivations.
Title: Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
Post by: DaveBB on March 19, 2016, 11:08:33 PM
"The dead only know one thing, it is better to be alive."
Pvt. Joker
Full Metal Jacket
Title: Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
Post by: Arlo on March 19, 2016, 11:17:49 PM
Title: Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
Post by: Brooke on March 20, 2016, 12:30:48 AM
"An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by William Butler Yeats: ==============================================
Nice! <S>
Here is one I love that probably everyone has already seen:
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there, I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. Where never lark, or even eagle flew — And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, - Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
-- "High Flight," by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Title: Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
Post by: Arlo on March 20, 2016, 10:33:46 AM
Title: Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
Post by: GScholz on March 20, 2016, 11:52:20 AM
The burly American accent ruins John Gillespie Magee, Jr. wonderful poem. Much better in the original accent.
Title: Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
Post by: Arlo on March 20, 2016, 12:13:20 PM
Title: Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
Post by: Serenity on March 20, 2016, 01:39:35 PM
The burly American accent ruins John Gillespie Magee, Jr. wonderful poem. Much better in the original accent.
Far and away my favorite Hornet Ball video!
Title: Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
Post by: Arlo on March 20, 2016, 02:43:23 PM
Title: Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
Post by: Brooke on March 20, 2016, 05:37:59 PM
When I was younger (back when TV had a handful of stations), the TV stations would also shut down for the night at about 1 or 2 am, and the signoff involved a reciting of High Flight.
Title: Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
Post by: zack1234 on March 21, 2016, 01:32:43 AM
Poems!
What's up with you lot?
Title: Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
Post by: Lab Rat 3947 on March 21, 2016, 01:47:37 AM
Quote
When I was younger (back when TV had a handful of stations), the TV stations would also shut down for the night at about 1 or 2 am, and the signoff involved a reciting of High Flight.
channels 2 - 13
same here, grew up in Burbank, next to Lockheed
Title: Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
Post by: Brooke on March 21, 2016, 02:01:33 AM