It might seem quite strange to look for the image of an ideal woman in “A Prayer for my Daughter”. But Yeats would have wanted his daughter to lead such an ideal life, regardless of the circumstances in which she was placed, for Europe at that time was on the verge of war. And so we can easily surmise her future image would be that of an ideal woman. Though we are likely to misunderstand that Maud Gonne was the ideal beautiful woman, the image which appears in the poem is not certainly that of Maud Gonne. She appears to be a woman whose life was ruined as a result of her outward appearance. Therefore, the poet prays for his daughter to be beautiful, but not too beautiful to distraught stranger’s eye or too beautiful to become proud of her beauty in appearance itself. Yeats emphasizes a good and kind heart. He found an example of that in Olivia Shakespear. She seldom appears in Yeats’s poetry or prose, but in some letters we can find she played an important role in Yeats’s life. After her death, Yeats wrote to Dorothy Wellesley that she had been the centre of his life in London for more than forty years. During those many years they enjoyed a close friendship. Yeats’s wife, George Hyde Lees, was a good wife and it is very hard to think of Yeats’s later poetry without her. After his marriage, he felt that he was satisfied and at peace, for his wife was considerate and self-sacrificing. The good and kind heart of both his wife and Olivia Shakespear has become an indispensable factor for his depiction of this image of an ideal woman. Yeats believed Lady Gregory was like his mother, friend, sister and brother. She became to Yeats an ideal aristocratic image. The poet explains her state in terms of a linnet, the Horn of Plenty and a hidden laurel tree, which mean kindness, wealth and custom respectively. Even though his daughter has an aristocratic attitude, she will lead a comfortable life, for she has a generous spirit which originated from ceremony and custom. In conclusion, we can say that Yeats developed this image of an ideal woman from the persons he knew well. He desires that his daughter has somewhat less beauty than Maud Gonne, such sincere and good heart as his wife and Olivia Shakespear, and the wealthy and generous spirit of Lady Gregory. He has certainly produced a “Unity of Being” in this poem.

• 최희섭(전주대학교) | Choi Hie-sup