William Butler Yeats's "An Irish American Forsees His Death" was first written in 1918 and published in 1919 as a part of Yeats' poetry collection, The Wild Swans at Coole. Told from the perspective of the eponymous Irish airman, the poem is his soliloquy so that he can explore the reasons behind his involvement in the war and his acceptance of his impending death. It discusses the role that Irish soldiers played in World War I (the war in which the Irish airman at the center of the poem is presumably fighting) and how many felt about their role in the war.
Yeats withheld the publication of the poem until the end of World War I out of loyalty to his government and for personal reasons. He didn't want to add to all of the anti-war and anti-British imperialist (Yeats was an ardent supporter of Irish independence from the United Kingdom) literature that emerged at the height of the war.
However, when the poem was published, it was very well-received. In fact, the poem is still widely read by the general public and frequently taught by schools across the world—but especially in the United Kingdom. Reviewers singled out Yeats' prose, the poem's stark imagery, and its themes as some of its most positive aspects.
