Poetry Analysis: “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” William Butler Yeats was a master of images. He used symbols and metaphors in all of his works, which make his readers imagine exactly what he is trying to say. Also, Yeats was a very visual poet. An example of Yeats’ visionary poems is shown in “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death.” The poem, about an Irish Pilot, symbolizes the Irish, who had to fight for the British during World War I, because Britain was their ‘Mother Land.’ The pilot does not hate the people he is fighting against, and does not love Britain, which is who he i