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Trail : home / Subjects / English / Teachers / Mr Foley / year 13 / WAR / poetry ww1 : W.B. Yeats

W.B. Yeats

An Irish Airman Foresees His Death: W. B. Yeats

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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.
Not law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely  impulse of delight
Drove me 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.