The Poet/Father (Speaker) – The speaker of the poem is the poet W. B. Yeats himself. He is a loving and thoughtful father. He prays for his newborn daughter’s future. As a father, he worries about the violence, pride, and foolishness of the modern world. Through his prayer, he wishes his daughter to grow up kind, wise, and peaceful, not too beautiful.

The Daughter (Anne Yeats) – The daughter in the poem is the poet’s real child, Anne Yeats. Anne was born just two days before Yeats wrote this poem.