An Irish Airman Foresees His Death

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"An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" is a poem by Irish poet William Butler Yeats. It chronicles the final thoughts of a First World War aviator. The aviator, who Yeats writes as in the first person, is convinced that the flight he is about to take will be his last, and he thinks of why he has chosen to fly. He flies for different reasons than most, not out of sense of duty or patriotism, not for prestige or for those he has left behind, but purely because he loves to fly. He reasons that he made his decision on the basis that his life so far has been wasted, and can see nothing to convince him that his life to come will be any better, and thus that it is better to enjoy the present, whatever the consequence.

The poem is featured on the Yeats tribute album Now And In A Time To Be, where it is sung by Shane McGowan of the rock group The Pogues. The British rock group Keane based their song "A Bad Dream" (featured on the album Under the Iron Sea) on the poem.