<P> I'ave WALKED and PRAYED for THIS young CHILD an HOUR (5) and HEARD the SEA - wind SCREAM upON the TOWER, (5) and UND - er th'ARCH - es OF the BRIDGE, and SCREAM (5) in th'ELMS aBOVE the FLOOD - ed STREAM; (4) imAG -' ning IN exCIT - ed REV - erIE (5) THAT the FUT - ure YEARS had COME, (4) DANC - ing TO a FRENZ - ied DRUM, (4) OUT of the MURD -' rous INN - ocence OF the SEA. (5) </P> <P> As the poem reflects Yeats's expectations for his young daughter, feminist critiques of the poem have questioned the poet's general approach to women through the text's portrayal of women in society . In Yeats's Ghosts, Brenda Maddox suggests that the poem is "designed deliberately to offend women" and labels it as "offensive". Maddox argues that Yeats, in the poem, condemns his daughter to adhere to 19th - century ideals of womanhood, as he focuses on her need for a husband and a "Big House" with a private income . </P> <P> Joyce Carol Oates suggests that Yeats used the poem to deprive his daughter of sensuality as he envisions a "crushingly conventional" view of womanhood, wishing her to become a "flourishing hidden tree" instead of allowing her the freedoms given to male children . This was after Yeats was rejected in marriage by Maud Gonne . In Oates' opinion, Yeats wishes his daughter to become like a "vegetable: immobile, unthinking, and placid ." </P> <P> Majorie Elizabeth Howes, in Yeats's Nations, suggests that the crisis facing the Anglo - Irish community in "A Prayer for My Daughter" is that of female sexual choice . But, she also argues that to read the poem without the political context surrounding the Irish Revolution robs the text of a deeper meaning that goes beyond the relationship between Yeats and the female sex . </P>

Another title suggested for a prayer for my daughter is