Among School Children by William Butler Yeats
First Published 1927; collected in The Tower, 1928
Type of Poem Meditation
The Poem
William Butler Yeats' "'Among School Children'' is written in eight eight-line stanzas that follow a precise rhyme scheme. Along with the straightforward title, stanza I establishes the immediate context of the action in deliberately prosaic language. The speaker is visiting a schoolroom, and "'a kind old nun,'' his guide for the day or perhaps the classroom teacher, is answering his matter-of-fact questions in a rapid, matter-of-fact way.
The tone and mood of the poem take a sharp turn in the couplet ending the first stanza, however; the speaker suddenly sees himself through the children"'"s eyes as they '"'In momentary wonder stare upon/ A sixty-year-old smiling public man.'"' The speaker is almost certainly Yeats himself; as a member of the Irish Senate, Yeats, just turned sixty, did in fact visit schools as a part of his official duties.
Seeing himself through the children"'"s eyes inspires a reverie. He thinks of a child, a girl, whom he knew in his own childhood or youth. The facts are not quite clear, for the reader is told of a '"'childish day'"' but also of '"'youthful sympathy.'"' Nevertheless, the young female is generally identified as Maud Gonne, with whom the poet first became acquainted and fell in love when she was in her late teens and he was in his twenties.
The reverie ends, but his eyes light upon one of the children, who looks amazingly like Maud when she was that age: '"'She stands before me as a living child.'"' Seeing her as she looked then reminds him of what she looks like now, after the passage of nearly forty years. '"'Her present image'"' is of someone...
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...self and others from the same condemnation. All fail in their choices and actions to face squarely the one insurmountable reality: Flesh ages, spirits flag, and human dreams wither. He thus accuses himself of having given up or given in ('"'I … had pretty plumage once'"' but now am '"'a comfortable kind of old scarecrow'"') and accuses nuns and mothers, as much as the Helens and Mauds of the world, of betraying the innocent, childlike spirit that fosters dreams and compels human choices.
People unwittingly create false images of what it is to be human, thereby creating false hopes and expectations. Yeats suggests that since there is no choice but to move forward, one should imagine the fullness of each moment as having an inextricable harmony with all others. Life is like a dance that does exist independent of a dancer but has no shape or form without the dancers.
Although Prize Giving highlights the superiority of the male Professor over the rest of the girls, there is a role reversal towards the end of the poem where the titian haired girl establishes power over him. Through her sexuality and musical talent, the girl asserts dominance in the final stanza and causes the professor to feel inferior for the first time, which comes as an uncomfortable shock to him (Harwood, pg.29). The poem of Father and Child which was published in Harwood’s 2nd Volume of poems continues to suggest a possible social change through the use of a child. Here, Harwood defeminises the child refusing to sentimentalise little girls by referring to the protagonist as a “wisp-haired judge” despite only being seven. The poem then links this to King Lear through the words “Old king” while reversing the relationship and position of power between father and daughter (Harwood, pg.111). These hints for change arise from the female children rather than the adults showing that although Harwood often represents women as subordinate to men, there is a possibility for change through the new
The most noticeable aspect of the structure of the entire poem is the lack of capital letters and periods. There is only one part in the entire forty lines, which is at the very end, and this intentional punctuation brings readers to question the speaker’s literacy. In fact, the speaker is very young, and the use of punctuation and hyphens brings to attention the speaker’s innocence, and because of that innocence, the
Though most of the poem is not dialogue, from what little speaking there is between the...
William Butler Yeats, born in Dublin, Ireland [June 13, 1865], is considered by many to be one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century. The following exposition, grounded on the hypothesis that Yeats’ poetry was resolutely influenced by the political occurrences of that time period, will give biographical information, a recounting of the political upheaval during that period, specific poetry excerpts/critical analysis and validation of hypothesis.
According to Ishmael, Takers are captives of a story that compels them to enact (Quinn 37). The story begins with the premise that the world was created for humanity, an idea humans didn’t become aware of till they abandoned nomadic, hunter-gatherer life to settle and become agriculturalists (68). Because the world belonged to them, humanity’s destiny was then to rule and bring order to the chaotic world, but because the world wouldn’t submit, they turned to conquering it (225). However, “… given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered … one day, inevitably, their foe will be bleeding to death at their feet …” (Quinn 84).
In “The Farmer’s Children,” Elizabeth Bishop uses different literary techniques to portray her theme. “The Farmer’s Children” tells the story of two young brothers, Cato and Emerson, who have to sleep in the cold in their father’s barn in order to protect the tools inside. These brothers also have to endure parental neglect from their stepmother and father which causes them to freeze to death in the barn. One technique that is used by Bishop is the characterization of the parents. In addition, Bishop uses an allusion, which is a reference to a work of art in another work of art, and symbolism to further show how the characterization of the parents affected the two brothers. In “The Farmer’s Children,” Bishop uses the characterization of the parents of Cato and Emerson, the allusion to “Hansel and Grethel,” and the symbolism of the stepmother’s snowflake quilt to portray the theme of how parental neglect can lead to negative consequences.
"Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too." So often, people look back upon their youth and wish that they still had it before them. Our natural tendency is to fear old age, to see it as the precursor to death, rather than a time of life, desirable in its own right. However, in John Keats' poem, To Autumn, he urges us not to take this view, but to see old age as a beautiful and enviable state of life, rather than something to be feared.
...epresents the ideal world, he saw life in the world. Now that he came in contact with Immortality, he cannot see any life in the world around him. He is lifeless ("palely loitering"), the forest is lifeless ("the sedge is withered"), and there is no music in the woods ("and no birds sing"). (Keats lines 46-48)
and cosmic. Verbal irony is the most familiar kind, this occurs when we understand that
As the poem can be interpreted in numerous ways, and therefore, its message has a flexibility that enables its readers to mould it’s meaning to befit them. Thus, allowing its messages to be applicable to anyone, regardless of demographic. For example, the poem can also be interpreted by Christians as man’s decaying interest of Christian ideologies and the supposed products of this decay. A view held by plenty of older Christians and a important view for Christian youth to acquire in order to cement their beliefs. Though the message conveyed by Yeats that can be applicable to all contemporary youth, is that depravity and tension arouses conflict. And when we look forward, we feel our anxiety stir at the inevitable - at the international conflict embedded in humanities future. Why will this conflict occur? Because if relations between ‘super-powers’ are withered now, how would it cope though overpopulation, the depletion of resources and other problems ever nation has to overcome? How can we be sure that these super-powers won’t value land, and resources such as oil over their populations in order to maintain their economic and political power? We don’t. This is why a third world war is indeed probable, and why this poem’s core message is still relevant to all
The two women present become symbolic of the different sorts of readers the poet is addressing, "that beautiful mild woman" standing in for the average intelligent reader and the "you" (who is not described in physical characteristics until the poem's last stanza) representing Maud Gonne, the poet's long-beloved fellow initiate. This doubling of the implied reader is ...
Analysis of William Butler Yeats' Poems; When You Are Old, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, The Wild Swans at Coole, The Second Coming and Sailing to Byzantium
The nature also seems to join in with their joy as the sun shines with sheer brilliance over the playing children. The azure sky also seems to be smiling at the joy of these innocent children. The whole atmosphere further seems drunk with high-spirited fervor; the church bells add their sonorous chimes to this festive atmosphere. The poet symbolizes the innocence and delicacy of children with the...
This refrain enforces his disgust at the type of money hungry people that the Irish have become. In the third and fourth stanza, however, Yeats completely changes the tone of his poetry. He praises the romantics of Irish history, such as Rob...
Finneran, Richard J. The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. 2nd ed. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1996.