Summary

A pilot considers the inevitable ending he will meet once he’s in the air fighting in a war. He reflects that he doesn’t hate his enemy, nor feel any strong loyalty to his own army; instead, his loyalty is to his home of Kiltartan Cross and the underprivileged people there. He doesn’t believe that the battle he is fighting will make any difference to their lives one way or the other. The man didn’t choose to join the battle out of any sense of duty, obligation, or social pressure; he joined for his own inner sense of adventure and wonder, and the knowledge that his life is ultimately meaningless regardless of his path.

Analysis

“An Irish Airman Forsees his Death” is a variation on an elegy, or a poem celebrating someone who has recently died. In this instance, however, it...