Author Topic: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats  (Read 603 times)

Offline RJH57

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"An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« 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.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2016, 11:46:50 PM by RJH57 »
"In Fighters, one must always quest to be
     a well-oiled machine fore Belching,
Whoring and Punching of Heads because
 inevitably the Goal is to flame the Enemy
            and Screw his Old Lady"

Offline DaveBB

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Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2016, 11:08:33 PM »
"The dead only know one thing, it is better to be alive."

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Offline Arlo

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Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2016, 11:17:49 PM »

Offline Brooke

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Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« Reply #3 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.

Offline Arlo

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Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2016, 10:33:46 AM »

Offline GScholz

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Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« Reply #5 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.


"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."

Offline Arlo

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Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« Reply #6 on: March 20, 2016, 12:13:20 PM »

Offline Serenity

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Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« Reply #7 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!

Offline Arlo

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Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« Reply #8 on: March 20, 2016, 02:43:23 PM »

Offline Brooke

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Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« Reply #9 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.

Offline zack1234

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Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« Reply #10 on: March 21, 2016, 01:32:43 AM »
Poems!

What's up with you lot?
There are no pies stored in this plane overnight

                          
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Pipz lived in the Wilderness near Ontario

Offline Lab Rat 3947

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Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« Reply #11 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
LtngRydr
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Offline Brooke

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Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« Reply #12 on: March 21, 2016, 02:01:33 AM »
Poems!

What's up with you lot?

Says the man with this in his country:



Offline zack1234

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Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« Reply #13 on: March 21, 2016, 02:50:51 AM »
Who let you into my front room !!

Someone is going to get chastised for this violation :old:
There are no pies stored in this plane overnight

                          
The GFC
Pipz lived in the Wilderness near Ontario

Offline Brooke

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Re: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats
« Reply #14 on: March 21, 2016, 01:56:57 PM »
Who let you into my front room !!

Someone is going to get chastised for this violation :old:

Jeeves and I went to Eton together.