著者

郷司 敬吾

出版者

横浜国立大学

雑誌

横浜国立大学人文紀要. 第二類, 語学・文学 (ISSN:0513563X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.7, pp.20-29, 1958-09-30

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According to Richard Ellmann's chronology, 'A prayer for My Daughter' was started on Feb. 22, 1919 and was completed in June when W. B. Yeats was at the age of fifty-four. Firstly, I attempted to record the background against which the poem was composed. In 1917, purging himself of his wasted love with Maud Gonne, he married with a young lady, Georgie Hyde-Lees. The new bride made his life serene and full of order. This drew his attention to aristocracy. They decided to reconstruct Ballylee Castle at Galway which he had bought so as to live a new life in a house where 'all's accustomed and ceremonious.' On the other hand, the Irish Nationalist Movement which the poet was an ardent adovocate, brought about the Black and Tan war. Disillusioned by this unexpected outcome of the movement, he was more and more driven into the solitude of the mind. Secondly, I tried to appreciate the poem. He seized upon his moments of respite in aristocracy as a symbol of rootedness. He declares in the poem that soul can keep its integrity only 'in custom and in ceremony'.