Summary
The speaker hopes that his daughter comes to know that, for most people, love is earned rather than freely given. The opposite is true only for the very beautiful. Many people who have been made fools in the presence of beauty are instead made wise in the company of a charming personality, and many lost, roving men, who love others and who believe themselves to be loved in return, end up captivated by kindness.
Metaphorically expressing these hopes, the speaker prays that his daughter will grow to be like a tree, and that her thoughts will resemble linnets, a type of bird. Her thoughts, like linnets' songs, should be generously shared, and she, like the linnet, should chase or fight with others only in a spirit of fun. He hopes that she will be like a laurel tree, rooted in a single location. Because of the people he has previously loved and the types of beauty that have drawn him in, the speaker feels that his own mental powers are currently lacking. Still, he knows that being full of hatred is probably the worst thing for a person's mind. A mind without hatred is solid and steady, so that its linnet-like thoughts cannot be blown off of their branches.
Analysis
The extended metaphor of the laurel tree offers particular insight into how the speaker views his daughter's ideal future. One of the qualities of the tree, as highlighted in the poem, is its attachment to place—not because it is stuck, but because it is "rooted." Thus the speaker appears to espouse stability, continuity, and a general attitude of groundedness. At the same time, the laurel wreath is often used as a symbol of Ireland. For Yeats, who himself had ties to Irish independence and nationalist movements, the general endorsement of rootedness and attachment to home is subtly tied to a more historically specific moment: it is possible to read this metaphor as the speaker's attempt to create an intergenerational sense of Irishness.
The laurel tree simile also emphasizes the tree's role within a broader ecosystem. Yeats repeatedly links the tree, metaphorically representing his daughter, to the birds who live within it and who represent his daughter's thoughts and internal life. This suggests not only that his daughter will have an active internal life (indeed, the speaker says very explicitly that he hopes his daughter's thoughts will be as playful and generous as the birds themselves), but also that he hopes for the daughter to have a symbiotic relationship with the broader world. This view of a person's role contrasts with the role he imagines for the extraordinarily beautiful: these beautiful people are inert and objectified, prompting envy and obsession rather than true connection. The tree, however, possesses a healthier and more dynamic type of beauty—one that nurtures other beings.
This middle section of the poem also offers one of the few direct glimpses into the speaker's own experience beyond that of being a parent. He describes having had negative past experiences, particularly with the types of arresting but empty beauty he condemns. He himself has been a victim of such beautiful women, he reveals, which has prompted his own mind to decay or become unproductive. In this moment, the speaker's advice both gains and loses a certain amount of credibility. He seems to speak from his own experience, which lends his advice gravity; at the same time, he reveals weaknesses of his own, and the lofty generalities in which he speaks appear suddenly to be veiled references to his own personal grudges and struggles. Regardless, this small moment of insight into the speaker's past makes him a compelling figure, precisely because so little is known about him: readers receive a hint of his story, but he offers up little more than that.
