Justify the title of W.B.Yeats' poem "The Ballad of Father Gilligan."

W.B.Yeats' poem "The Ballad of Father Gilligan" is a
literary ballad based on an incident either true or fictional belonging to the poor
illiterate Irish folk.

A ballad is usually a short
narrative poem telling an interesting story. Since Yeats' poem "The Ballad of Father
Gilligan" tells the story of how God himself took pity on the weary Gilligan and sent an
angel instead of him to minister the last communion to a dying parishioner and thus
ensuring that his soul went to heaven, the title of the poem is indeed
very apt.

Since Yeats' ballad is a literary
ballad he has deliberately worked into his poem some of the characteristics of the
traditional ballad which belonged to the oral tradition and was never written
down.

He has employed the ballad quatrain
throughout his poem,comprising  eight syllables in the first and the
third lines which do not rhyme and six syllables in the second and fourth lines which
rhyme.

Another important feature of the traditional ballad
which Yeats has incorporated in his poem is repetition. For
instance he has repeated "moth-hour" twice to poetically describe dusk and
dawn.

Yeats very poetically refers to the approaching
twilight as,

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At the moth-hour of the
eve

in
order to emphasize the rural background of his ballad. The traditional ballads belonged
to the illiterate  rural folk and were passed on from one generation to the next by word
of mouth. The poor illiterate villagers never possessed a clock or a watch and they
always told time by the changes which took place from time to time in
Nature.

In the Irish countryside,
both at dusk and at dawn the countryside would swarm with moths. The villagers would
ascertain that it was either dusk or dawn by the presence of the
moths.

Just as Father Gilligan
had dozed he was disturbed from his sleep by the urgent call of another dying
parishioner. Wearily, Father Gilligan began to grumble and murmur about his lack of
rest:

'I have
no rest, nor joy, nor peace,
For people die and
die;

But the very next
instant he checks himself seeks God's forgiveness and kneels down by the side of his
chair and begins to pray. However, shortly Father Gilligan is completely overwhelmed by
sleep. Soon, it is night and once the stars appear in the sky the moths
disappear,

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And the moth-hour went
from the
fields.

The
tired Father Gilligan slept the entire night kneeling down by the side of his chair.
Early in the morning, at dawn he woke up to the cheerful sound of the chirping sparrows
and once again the moths which appeared in the twilight reappeared at
dawn:

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Upon the time of sparrow
chirp
When the moths came once
more,

Poor
Father Gilligan realized his mistake and rushed off to the house of the dying
parishioner, only to be greeted by the dead man's widow with the news that he had
actually come earlier on and had ministered the last communion to the dying man and by
doing so had ensured the salvation of his soul:

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The sick man's wife opened the
door,
'Father! you come
again!'

It is then that he
realizes that God the Creator had taken pity on him who had worn himself out completely
in His service, had sent an angel to minister the last communion to the dying
man:

'He Who
is wrapped in purple robes,
With planets in His care
Had pity on the
least of things
Asleep upon a
chair.'