The Stolen Child – W.B. Yeats

‘The Stolen Child’ by W.B Yeats was published in one of Yeats’ very first collections of poems, the Crossways collection of 1889 when he was just 24 years old. This poem is said to have been written because Yeats’ brother died young. However, it could be argued that this poem is highlighting Yeats’ desire to escape from the world. The main themes noted throughout this poem are that of the dream world and supernatural, which could be linked to his longing for escape from the world or Ireland. Also, the poem could be viewed as child abduction, (hence the phrase ‘The Stolen Child’ as the title) by the “faeries” who are evil and are luring the child into the world of dreams. Also, plot of the poem is a metaphor for the return to innocence, which is characterised by childhood. The ‘fantasy’ world Yeats creates sharply contrasts with the real world, representing his dissatisfaction with the real world. This poem gives the idea of the common idiom ‘you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone’ as the child’s dissatisfaction had lost him his place in the real world as he is now lost in false reality.

This is a poem that is narrated by a supernatural creature of Irish folklore, or faery, who attempts to lure a boy into leaving the human world around him.  Yeats adapts an old Irish tradition where fairies steal human children and replace them with changelings.  The poem utilises this myth and through it develops tension between the two worlds of the poem – the supernatural and the natural which therefore creates the illusion of dreams and the dream of illusion. The poem mentions dreamlike images of this illusion that the faeries have created to attempt to trick the boy into swapping his way into the alien world – this could be alluding to Yeats falling into this system in which he became fascinated with the occult and the afterlife as well as other supernatural worlds.

The final four lines of the first stanza closes in the rhythm and the rhyme of the poem, “To the waters and the wild // with a faery, hand in hand // For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand” These last four lines of stanza’s one, two and three include irony as they are telling the child that they are in fact saving him from his own terrible world, when realistically they are cheating and deceiving him. This highlights the innocence and naivety the child has and highlights the illusion of dreams, and the dream of illusion. Also, ‘the world is more full of weeping than he can understand.” means that the child is incapable of understanding perhaps the reality of life and because of his innocence is easily lured into false security.

Throughout the third stanza the sibilance conjures up a sense of silliness and mischief. This therefore gives the idea of the faeries setting a trap and breaking the allusion of this dreamlike image for the child. However, this presents a very sinister ending to the poem where the boy unfortunately falls for the allusion of the dream and ends up losing of the warmth of his world – showing how easily a child can sometimes be lost in such dreaming.

However, there is also the warm reassuring imagery at the very beginning of the final verse. This can be seen as an illusion of the dream-like state of this world. The “warm hillside” can be seen as a reassuring image of the warm human world. It could be that Yeats is presenting a contrast between the human and faery world. The boy has been tricked into believing the dream of this world being exactly the same as the human world, however he may see a lake, sea, waterfall, stream and pool as beautiful or enchanting but he does not quite understand that they are no home like his world. Whereas his world may be more full of weeping than he can understand, it is his world.

In the last stanza “you” changes to “he” which sounds more sinister and removed, as if the child is now distant and caught in the faery world. It’s almost mocking the parents as “he” shows how the faeries don’t even know his name, yet it could also show how “he” represents many children.

The poem in itself is an illusion. However, the wonderful lyricism, and the almost enchantment in nature with the words being strong and romantic create a somewhat magical effect which gives the poem a sense of being something that is magical, ancient and different in its own ways. The poem can be seen as almost an excuse, perhaps a comfort for the parents as their child has disappeared, or even died – he has been lured to a negative view of life which is ‘full of weeping’ which also highlights the broken dreams which the child has endured and the ‘faerys’ whether their existence is true or not they have created a better world to lure the child from his world into a horrendous illusion.

‘The Fisherman’ – W.B Yeats.

Composed in June 1914; first published in 1916 and from ‘The Wild Swans’ group of poetry, ‘The Fisherman’ describes both an ideal man and the ideal audience. This poem is split into two stanzas, with both simple rhyme scheme and language which highlights the fact that Yeats wants both his readers and the people of Ireland to be ”wise and simple“. Yeats uses short lines to a great effect, achieving conciseness of phrase throughout, as when he speaks of his desire “To write for my own race“.

Throughout, Yeats conceives his ideal reader as “A man who does not exist, / A man who is but a dream”. These lines speak eloquently of his disillusion with the actual audience. The use of ‘maybe’ in the opening and closing lines of the second stanza signals that ‘The Fisherman’ is about the process and work of imagination. The fisherman is a figure of the people and yet, set apart in his ‘grey Connemara clothes‘ from the ‘living men that I hate‘. The oxymoronic phrase “wise and simple man”, implies an intelligent man, but one without needing materialistic extravagances. The lack of extravagances demanded by the lifestyle of his perfect receptacle is noted by the lack of pretension in the form of the verse.

The main part of the poem “Art beaten down” is portraying that all arts including poetry is being slowly diminished by the ignorance of the general public, this includes all the “insolent” that are slowly destroying the culture of Ireland.

Also the enjambment throughout the poem is noted as an official Yeatsian technique as he tends to include this in many of his poems. The enjambment throughout this poem establishes the notion that the general public are a continuous issue with their ignorance of destroying the culture of Ireland and consequently not showing the slightest interest in his poetry and look no further than a “drunken cheer-“.

The poem is written in a romantic style. This could be due to the love of his job. The fact that this poem does appear to be very simple in its form it does contrast with life in general as everything is complex thus stating that Yeats would prefer his audience to be simplistic. “To write for my own race / And the reality:” the ‘reality‘ of this line portrays the harsh ‘reality‘ of modern Ireland and more specifically his audience.

Easter 1916 – W.B Yeats.

‘Easter 1916’ by William Butler Yeats (W.B Yeats) is along with ‘September 1913’ a political poem. Yeats describes an Irish immature revolutionary plan, which became unsuccessful to overthrow the British reign in Ireland. Yeats believed that these heroic figures who fought for the freedom should be remembered and thus decided to write about them to share his pride with the world.

Interestingly enough the structure of this poem is very exciting. There are sixteen lines in both the first and third stanza hence ‘1916’. In the second and fourth stanza there are twenty four hence ’24th April’ the date the rising began. Lastly there are four stanza’s as April is the fourth month.

The first verse reflects the point of view of a flâneur (French: Meaning – ”Stroller”). The very first observation that is made obvious is the “vivid faces” these vivid faces are those of the youthful idealists of whom have the ambition to change the future of Ireland.

He then moves on to state “polite meaningless words” this highlights his patronising attitude towards those normal day average people who are “from counter or desk”. He shows no interest in these “grey” people consequently he greets them with a meaningless “nod of the head” or words of formality without any significance.

In the second stanza Yeats describes the story of people who participated in the Irish Revolution. A specific person who he makes reference to is John MacBride who was with the love of his life, but also “had done most bitter wrong // To some who are near my heard.” which portrays that he was in fact very abusive to Maud Gonne. However he puts his own emotions to one side as “He, too, has resigned his part”. Moreover, just after he names a few revolutionists he writes “casual comedy”, which gives the message that human life is extremely unvalued and leaves the question: “All these people died for what?“ engraved in many minds.

Throughout the third verse his main point is nature. The repetition of “stone“ throughout this verse is very important as when thrown into a stream a stone displaces water and the natural order of things; the revolutionaries do the same thing, “a stone to trouble the living stream”. However the summary of this verse is that it gives the message that nature lives in the moment, but the natural order of things will soon be destroyed. Lastly in the third verse the last line is different and states “The stone’s in the midst of all” is the stone: disruption; strength or Ireland?

In the final verse Yeats does a final count of the revolutionaries of who fought in this battle. At first people were anonymous, but later identified by name so that they are remembered and are not easily forgotten.

Lastly throughout the entire poem three of four versus all end with “A terrible beauty is born”, which is an oxymoron as it fits all the different views in each stanza together, also it reminds the reader of the real issues of fighting.

In conclusion, these fighters will live forever inspiring future revolutionaries. Furthermore, the true terrible beauty is in fact the revolutionaries themselves as they are the true reason why so many deceased and will continue to decease; the reason why both the ‘Easter Rising’ began, and so many more will continue as Ireland still have not gained full independence.