Although the poem is entitled “A Prayer for My Daughter”, it seems to me like the mother is also having an indirect conversation with her daughter through the prayer. She prays for her daughter’s beauty but like so many other mothers, she wants what is best for her daughter. With beauty she knows that there are certain life lessons that her daughter must also learn. However this mother does not pray to make her daughter humble. Beauty does only takes a woman so far, but the ability to be humble enhances her beauty. I remember my parents praying for me however I find it strange that this particular mother prays for her child’s beauty. Of all things why not pray for well-being.
“May she be granted beauty and not yet
Beauty to make a stranger’s eye distraught
Or hers before a looking-glass, for such
Being made beautiful over much” (Line 17-20)
The mother prays that her daughter is not made too beautiful in order to save someone else feelings. This makes me worry about the mother’s sanity because she tends to be a little confused. I am reminded of a man who raped a woman and says that she was asking for it because of her looks. By doing this the mother shows the ideals of what the woman’s place was at that time.
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Hi Simone,
ReplyDeleteYou bring out some very good points around the mother's perspective. She appears a bit shallow, but I agree some of it may have been a sign of the times.
Simone,
ReplyDeleteSome good insights and observations on Yeats's poem, but I am confused why you would assert it is a mother's address to her daughter. The author is male, so I would assume the speaker is a father rather than a mother. There are no indicators in the text that the speaker is female. The difference in gender between the speaker and the subject may explain some of the odd wishes or assumptions he makes.
You bring out some good questions about Yeats's poem, but you also have to remember the historical aspect of the poem. During Yeats's time, many girls were married mainly for their looks. So it's also a prayer for a good husband, in a very weird, twisted sense.
ReplyDeleteInteresting take on the poem though I think that the interpretation was not to be one for concern but merely a parent expressing their best wishes for a daughter. Which at the time, the biggest hope for a young girl was the be married to a good husband.
ReplyDeleteI know this poem was a little confusing and if you did not go over some of the lines twice it is hard to figure out who is speaking. It is about a family wishing that it has a beautiful, happy daughter and the fact that it is a male poet makes it that much more interesting.
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