A Prayer for my Son

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1922from The Tower32 lines

Bid a strong ghost stand at the headThat my Michael may sleep sound,Nor cry, nor turn in the bedTill his morning meal come round;And may departing twilight keepAll dread afar till morning’s back,That his mother may not lackHer fill of sleep.

Bid the ghost have sword in fist:Some there are, for I avowSuch devilish things exist,Who have planned his murder for they knowOf some most haughty deed or thoughtThat waits upon his future days,And would through hatred of the baysBring that to nought.

Though You can fashion everythingFrom nothing every day, and teachThe morning stars to sing,You have lacked articulate speechTo tell Your simplest want, and known,Wailing upon a woman’s knee,All of that worst ignominyOf flesh and bone;

And when through all the town there ranThe servants of Your enemy,A woman and a man,Unless the Holy Writings lie,Hurried through the smooth and roughAnd through the fertile and waste,Protecting, till the danger past,With human love.

Text: Poetry, by W. B. Yeats (Standard Ebooks, 2024), from the collected editions of 1908 to 1928. Public domain.

In brief

Summary

A father prays for a guardian ghost to protect his infant son.

The poem opens with a request: set "a strong ghost" at the head of Michael's bed so the child sleeps soundly and his mother gets her "fill of sleep". The second stanza arms the ghost with a sword, against enemies who would destroy the boy because of some "haughty deed or thought" in his future. Then the prayer turns to God, who can make everything from nothing yet came as a crying baby, and who was saved from his enemies by "A woman and a man" through ordinary human love. A father's anxious love finds its model in the flight of the Holy Family.

Lines to remember

Bid a strong ghost stand at the head

Wailing upon a woman's knee,

With human love.

Line by line

Lines 1 to 8A guard for sleep
The first wish is simple and domestic: a ghost at the bedhead so "my Michael" will not cry or toss until breakfast. The stanza's last line thinks of the tired parent too, praying that his mother may have "Her fill of sleep", and shrinks to two beats like a yawn.
Lines 9 to 16Sword in fist
The ghost now needs a weapon. The father declares that "devilish things exist" which would murder the child out of "hatred of the bays", jealousy of the glory waiting in his future. It is half a parent's night fear, half a proud prophecy.
Lines 17 to 24God as a baby
The prayer turns to God, who teaches "The morning stars to sing" yet, as the infant Christ, lacked the words to ask for his "simplest want". He knew, "Wailing upon a woman's knee", all the helplessness of "flesh and bone".
Lines 25 to 32The flight from danger
The last stanza recalls the Gospel story of Herod's soldiers searching the town and Mary and Joseph fleeing with the child. They hurried through "the smooth and rough" and protected him "With human love", the plain phrase that closes the poem and answers its prayer.

Themes

Fatherhood

The poem is full of a new parent's tenderness and worry. It begins with sleep and ends with protection, and it imagines both small troubles (crying in the night) and grand ones (a murder plot). Calling him "my Michael" makes the prayer intimate, and the concern for "his mother" includes the whole family.

God made human

Stanzas 3 and 4 look at the Christmas story from an unusual angle. The all-powerful creator becomes a baby who cannot speak and who suffers the "worst ignominy" of "flesh and bone". Even God, as a child, depended on a mother and father, which gives every parent's care a kind of holiness.

Danger and protection

Threat runs through the poem: "All dread", "sword in fist", murder, "the servants of Your enemy". Against these the poem sets two guardians, a supernatural ghost and ordinary parents. The ending suggests that the humbler protection, "human love", is the one that actually saved the holy child.

Context

The Yeatses' son Michael was born at Cuttle Brook House, Thame, on 22 August 1921, and this prayer was first printed the next year in Seven Poems and a Fragment (Cuala Press, 1922). It was collected in The Tower (Macmillan, 1928). It is a companion to "A Prayer for my Daughter", written for his first child, Anne, born in 1919.

The last two stanzas retell the flight into Egypt from Saint Matthew's Gospel, when Joseph and Mary carried the infant Jesus away from King Herod's soldiers. Michael Yeats grew up to be a barrister, senator and member of the European Parliament.

Form

Four eight-line stanzas rhymed ABABCDDC. Most lines have three or four beats, but the last line of each stanza shrinks to two ("Her fill of sleep", "Bring that to nought", "Of flesh and bone", "With human love"), so every stanza closes softly, like a lullaby. The rhymes loosen at the end ("rough" and "love").