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.
No law,
nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds.
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove 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.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
This classic war poem, regarding the spirituality of
self-sacrifice, stirs many emotions. It was written as a
memorial to his friend Major Robert GREGORY.
In particular also, Yeats invokes the popular yearning in Ireland
for Independence, which had been forestalled politically
by the outbreak of WW1 and was further complicated by the
“Easter Rising” of 1916 in Dublin.
The photo heading this piece
is one of the famous images from the “Cockburn-Lange Collection”.
While these were later revealed to be fakes,
the skilled model-maker who produced
them had been a pilot in the RFC and his pictures attained
a high degree of “realism” that could not be matched by official
photos of the time.