Critics of some stature, Eliot, Auden and AL Johnson see Yeats's mature work as the embodiment of a poetics of "staging and presence" that affirms life. Yeats's poem An Irishman Foresees His Death seems, however, on first reading to be a nihilistic concession to universal futility. A reasonable proposal considering that the speaker denounces “this life” in a casual colloquialism like “A waste of breath.” But problematic for a poet whose work contradicted that view. Most see, however, Yeats as writing an inspirational and transcendent poetic vision that evokes the joy of flight, "A solitary pulse of joy" that drove the young pilot to join the war despite his lack of patriotism. There is no question of the poem's technical brilliance in continually offering opposing dichotomies and paradoxes and then reconciling them to produce the final triumphant harmony in which death is not feared because the life to come has no more value than the life lived. “I balanced everything, I remembered everything.” Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay First, the poem convinces us that the speaker is rational, that he is sincere as the monosyllabic sentence and the absence of metaphorical embellishment claim in the opening address: “I know that I will meet my destiny.” He states, unequivocally, that he is not afraid, “I know”, reassuring us. And he sees his death in the “clouds above” rather than in the putrid mud of Flanders as confirmation of his love of flying. It resembles an apotheosis and gives the rider a divine or saintly status. So Yeats employs the anaphora, “those I fight,” “those I protect.” Throughout the poem, Yeats uses a limiting and regular “ABAB” rhyme scheme, further aided by end rhymes that are tonally regular. They all logically contribute to the unparalleled textual harmony of this poem which inevitably works to mitigate the clash of opposites within the poem's ideas. “Hate” is contrasted with “love,” each of which cancels the other out, “Those I fight I do not hate, Those I protect I do not love.” Oppositional elements work both vertically and horizontally. From lines 6 to 10 a series of multiple negations begins each line, “No, Or, Nor, Nor,” removing any lingering doubt as to whether the airman truly went freely to his destiny. That what “drove” him was simply a “solitary” “delight,” the pun on his aircraft engine (he drove) and his will blended will and action. From line 13 to 16 there is an ingenious and intricate piece of chiasmus that again works both vertically and horizontally. “I Balanced” in line 13 is balanced vertically against “In Balance” in line 16. The phrase “wasted breath” at the end of line 14 is balanced by the “years to come” that precede it and with the help of the chiastic turn of the syntax the "years behind". The whole poem then, besides being a persuasive piece of ventriloquism justifying the voluntary sacrifice of Yeats's intimate friend, is a perfect microcosm or expression of the twin turns at the midpoint where if one is destined to die a man can see little purpose in life. But if that were the case it would be a repudiation of the way Yeats lived his life, a man who strove into old age to evoke in his poetry the conflict, beauty, excitement and passion of his world. AL Johnson therefore in believing that Yeats was life-affirming was necessary to see the flaw in the aviator's belief. He focused on the equivocation “seemed” in line 14 which strangely is in the past tense in a poem that begins in the present tense, “I know.” And whose title contains the word “foresees”,."