I Matter

            William Butler Yeats’ poem, “ An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” stands out above all the other poems that I could have chosen because I feel and may be able to relate to the other’s connection to the poem’s meaning. The poem brings to light the mind-set of an Irish airman who is fighting another’s fight. He fights and risks his life for people he cares little about. “Those that I fight I do not hate/Those that I guard I do not love” (Yeats 3-4). He fights for a reason other than the usual, love or hate. He fights for a reason little to no one fights for. He fights to be a part of something. He fights to be part of a community. He risks his life in battle only feel like he accomplished something in his life. I had a similar feeling last year during times of extreme stress.

Just like Yeats, I have felt like I am living a meaningless life. My feelings aren’t as exagerated as the poem foretells for Yeats, but I have felt my trivial mark on the human race. During times of stress, I have thought about of the meaningless of life and how stress has consumed me, taking me to a place of self-doubt and a desire to mean something. I only feel these intense emotions when my inner strength is pushed to its max. Otherwise I feel like I can and have made a difference in my life and in the lives of others around me. My feelings are confused and wild during times of extreme stress but the feelings of Yeats’ are always with him and always wild.

Yeats is always in a whirlwind of emotions and insecurity. He has little self-confidence and feels useless. He believes his life to have been useless thus far, and he believes it to be useless for years to come. “The years to come seemed waste of breath,/A waste of breath the years behind” (Yeats 14-15). Yeats wants his life to mean something. He wants to help someone even if he doesn’t care about them. He wants to mean something to his community even if he has to die to leave a mark. He wants to leave a mark even if that mark is drowned by the marks of all the other soldiers. He wants to make something of himself and to matter.