William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939 / County Dublin / Ireland)

The airman realises that the statistical chances of survival are against him the longer he continues as a fighter pilot.
His country is Southern Ireland, which unlike the North was not directly involved in WW 1, and therefore will be unaffected by its outcome.
Why then does he fight? Not for the usual patriotic reasons; rather because:
A lonely impulse of delight/Drove to this tumult in the clouds.
From the way Yeats writes it, it is the irresistible impulse that is doing the driving (‘tumult’ suggests something enjoyable, unlike, for instance, ‘dogfight’.)
The airman has made a rational decision, and the last lines are beautifully balanced to suggest that neither past nor future can match the danger and excitement of the present.

Excellent poem with deep thoughts......

By far my favourte poem...
The recurring theme of balance and temperence- classic Yeats and beautifully written in the thoughtful-dream like fashion.
Entrancing and prophetic for such a short poem. It has made me think on many occasions- What is the nature of choice? Is it possible to balance all? Is death really so predictable and simple?

One of my favorites... a man, totally indifferent of the war, driven only by his pleasure of flying, very nicely portrayed here.

I find this typically Yeats...........he conveys the thoughts of the young airman,
who finds himself embroiled in the carnage of the Western Front.Despite the
almost inevitiability of his own death, he conciously will continue his ariel war
against an'enemy ' he neither knows nor loathes.A war conducted against other
young men, not unlike himself......the best their country has to offer, also.
The melancholy and poignancy which Yeats creates is particularly emotive.
in this week of rememberance.The terrible waste and futility of war, was never
bettered, even by the acknowledged ww1 poets, at their most convincing.
Yeats is a particlar favourite of mine.