<P> The poem begins by describing "storm" which is a "howling", and his newborn daughter, sleeping "half hid" in her cradle, and protected somewhat from the storm . The storm, which can in part be read as symbolizing the Irish War of Independence, overshadows the birth of Yeats' daughter and creates the political frame that sets the text into historical context . In stanza two, the setting for the poem is revealed as being "the tower", a setting for many of Yeats's poems, including the book of poems entitled The Tower (1928). This is Thoor Ballylee, an ancient Norman tower in Galway, which Yeats had bought in 1917 and where he intended making a home . </P> <P> Conflicts between Ireland and the United Kingdom were common subjects of Yeats' poetry, including his notable poems about the Dublin Lockout ("September 1913") and the Easter Rising ("Easter 1916"). David Holdeman suggests that this poem "carries over from' The Second Coming"' in the tone it uses to describe the political situation facing Ireland at the end of World War One and with the formation of the Irish Republican Army . </P> <P> The poem contains ten stanzas of eight lines each: two rhymed couplets followed by a quatrain of enclosed rhyme . Many of the rhyme pairs use slant rhyme . The stanza may be seen as a variation on ottava rima, an eight - lined stanza used in other Yeats poems, such as Among School Children and Sailing to Byzantium . </P> <P> Metrical analysis of the poem, according to Robert Einarsson, proves difficult because he believes Yeats adheres to "rhythmical motifs" rather than traditional use of syllables in his meter . In stanza two, Einarsson points out instances where the meter of the poem contains examples of amphibrachic, pyrrhicretic, and spondaic feet . He argues that the complexity of Yeats's verse follows patterns of its "metremes", or rhymical motifs, rather than common metrical devices . </P>

A prayer for my daughter by wb yeats summary