WB Yeats's poem "An Irish Airman Foresees his Death" and Shakespeare's poem "Come Away, Come Away, Death" both address the theme of imminent death, although from different causes. Although the poems use similar figurative and sonic elements of language, their tone and style vary. Yeats's poem is primarily a war poem that serves as an elegy for the Irish pilot, Major Robert Gregory, who died during the First World War. In contrast to this Shakespeare poem is a plaintive love song sung by Feste's character in Twelfth Night. Although they are different in setting, both express acceptance of death. Although both poems convey awareness of approaching death, the causes of death are different. Shakespeare's poem, being a lament about unrequited love, deals with death at the hands of "a fair and cruel maiden" (4). The awareness and acceptance of impending death is reflected in the two opening lines "Come away, come away death, |". and let me lie down in a sad cypress tree.' (1,2). The repetition of "come away" reflects the speaker's willingness to face death, which is further echoed in the choice of the word "leave." The speaker begs for death to allow him to be buried. Similarly in Yeats's poetry, the awareness of death is expressed in the first lines of the poem 'I know I will meet my fate | Somewhere in the clouds above;' (1,2).However, unlike Shakespeare's poem, Yeats's speaker accepts death at the hands of war. "Somewhere in the clouds above" (2) is a metaphor for death in battle in the sky. This idyllic description is in contrast to what it refers to, which is a brutal death in war. The speaker's acceptance of death is expressed in the closing line of the poem exciting of a... medium of paper... not to mourn it. The rhythmic rhythm provided by the caesuras adds to the continuous and uniform rhyme scheme that forms the poem into a unified whole of the rhyme scheme found in both poems, which creates the steady rhythm of the poem, contributes to the creation of a tranquil atmosphere, a certain calm in the face of death Although Shakespeare's speaker seems more emotional and Yeats's more explanatory in tone, both express the willingness to welcome death. While different in style and context, both poems serve the same purpose for their speakers, the acceptance of death, Yeats's acceptance of death as a result of war, and his acceptance of death as a result of a Shakespeare's unrequited love. Works Cited The Norton Anthology of Poetry, ed. . Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy, 5th edition (London: WW Norton & Company, 2005)