April 6, 2007

A Prayer for My Daughter


I have walked and prayed for this young child an hour
And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower,
And under the arches of the bridge, and scream
In the elms above the flooded stream;
Imagining in excited reverie
That the future years had come,
Dancing to a frenzied drum,
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.


From "A Prayer for My Daughter"
by William Butler Yeats

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:26 PM

    What a pretty picture of her.

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  2. Anonymous9:27 PM

    Coming out of lurking to say - that is such a beautiful picture of her....and the poem is a lovely sentiment as well.

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  3. What an absolutely gorgeous photo. She is growing into a beautiful girl (but then she always was)

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  4. I read the title, and the first thought in my mind was "Oh dear God, please don't let her have had a seizure."

    Beautiful picture; wonderful poem.

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  5. Anonymous8:36 PM

    And...

    "She can, though every face should scowl
    And every windy quarter howl
    Or every bellows burst,
    Be happy still."

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  6. Well, you quoted the nice part of the poem, not the part where he prays that she won't have any opinions because that just leads to unhappiness.

    But I kind of suspect that that won't be a problem for Schuyler.

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  7. My gods, the girl just gets more & more beautiful every day.

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  8. Anonymous6:46 AM

    This is why I love Yeats -- you can find an appropriate quote from him about ANYTHING. (Seriously -- I'm a theatrical stage manager, and I've even found an entire poem he wrote about those evil rehearsals when everyone needs something of you and everyone is being a diva, and you come home wanting to kill everyone, change your name and go into banking instead.)

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  9. Anonymous7:46 PM

    Beauty that made me cry. Both the photo and the poem :)

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