The ballad of Father Gilligan Appreciation and Questions and Answers
‘The Ballad of Father Gilligan’ is a very famous poem written by the most renowned Irish poet William Butler Yeats.
It is a typical ballad that illustrates God’s everlasting benevolence and how He intervenes in the life of an earnest priest at a time of intense need.
It is an affirmation of a loving and kind God who showers his blessings on all his creations.
Fathar Gilligan was weary and tired, carrying out his priestly obligations day and night during an epidemic in his parish.
One evening at moth hour, completely exhausted by the strain, Father Gilligan fell asleep. He woke up at dawn feeling shocked at his failure to perform his duties.
He rode recklessly to the house of the sick man. There he realizes that God had compassionately sent an angel to minister the last ritual to the dying man.
The priest humbled by this knelt and prayed thanking God for his benevolence.
The poem is written in the form of a ballad with the stanzaic structure of twelve stanzas of four lines each. The poem is musical following the rhyme scheme ABCB.
Brilliant use of visual images like ‘green sods’,the moth hour’ and auditory image like ‘sparrow chirping’ make the poem enchanting.
He turned and died, as merry as a bird’ is a beautiful example for simile in the poem.
The ballad of Father Gilligan Questions and Answers
Questions and Answers will be added soon.
