<P> `` An Irish Airman Foresees His Death '' is a poem by Irish poet William Butler Yeats ( 1865 - 1939 ) written in 1918 and first published in the Macmillan edition of The Wild Swans at Coole in 1919 . The poem is a soliloquy given by an aviator in the First World War in which the narrator describes the circumstances surrounding his imminent death . The poem is a work that discusses the role of Irish soldiers fighting for the United Kingdom during a time when they were trying to establish independence for Ireland . Wishing to show restraint from publishing political poems during the height of the war , Yeats withheld publication of the poem until after the conflict had ended . </P>
who is an irish airman foresees his death about
an aviator in the First World War