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I'm writing a research paper about William Butler Yeats. In the paper, I talk about his three poems "A Prayer for My Daughter," "When You are Old"...

Yeats is one of my favorite poets! Does your assignment allow you to choose any poems? I am assuming you have to tailor your thesis statement to discuss these three works. I think you could definitely refer to Yeats' love of Ireland with all three of these; in particular, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" has so much landscape imagery and also the strong element of faery folklore which is central to the Irish mythos.


I am not sure I would call any of these three poems you have listed here "patriotic," however. I think of Yeats' more political poems as being patriotic, if what you mean by that is a demonstration of his love for his nation and his desire to illuminate Ireland's political challenges. There are a number of well-known poems by Yeats that are considered excellent examples of his political stance with regard to his homeland, such as "The Second Coming" or "Easter, 1916" in which he writes with definite reference to political attitudes and events in Ireland (like the Easter Rising).


Perhaps of these three the most "patriotic" one is "A Prayer for My Daughter" because the poet does seem to be referring (if somewhat vaguely) to matters that weigh heavily on his mind as he imagines his daughter's future and fate:



And for an hour I have walked and prayed   


Because of the great gloom that is in my mind.



These lines suggest Yeats is concerned for his daughter's future because of the instability of Ireland under English rule. In that way there could be said to be a reference to patriotic thoughts.

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