Essay Analysis of W.B.Yeats The Stolen Child - 1024 Words

Analysis of W.B.Yeats The Stolen Child The Stolen Child was written by W.B.Yeats in 1886. The Victorian Era of literature was in full swing, while upstart new poets, dissatisfied with the airy nature of earlier poetic works, began demanding more concrete, realistic, and hard-hitting literature that avoided the metaphorical distancing that the Romantics were prone to. They scoffed at Yeats, at his romantic views, at his out-dated style of writing. Frustrated, perhaps even angered, by the scorn of his upcoming peers, Yeats would soon find himself wavering between the more fantastical style of his youth, and the harder-edged stuff that would come to be found in Easter 1916. This, of course, is of little†¦show more content†¦There are suggestions that the seductive creature of faery may very well be a liar, a tempter of humankind; the world of humanity may not be as terrible as its words make it out to be, while the world of faery may not be as wonderful as the child is led to believe. The first three stanzas extol the wonders of the faery world and of faery life: they ... foot it all night/Weaving olden dances/Mingling hands and mingling glances, leading an idyllic life where the ...moonlight glosses/The dim grey sands with light, surrounded by scenes of breathtaking beauty and natural life. This care-free existence is contrasted to the human world, for ... the [human] world is full of troubles/And is anxious in its sleep. Note, however, that the speaker is very ambiguous when mentioning these troubles, never confronting them directly, never clearly stating what they are. There is a gap here, a deflection from the supposed horrors of the human world. In the fourth stanza, an interesting shift takes place. Once the childs allegiance is secured, the speaker reveals some of the magical moments that exist in the human world, moments now eternally lost. ...the lowing/Of the calves on the warm hillside/Or the kettle on the hob/[Singing] peace into his breast, these little miracles of human life are forever barred from the lost child. The faerys honesty comes too late. In fact, the faery mayShow MoreRelatedWho Goes with Fergus11452 Words   |  46 PagesFergus example and leave the cares of the world to know the wisdom of nature. He exhorts young men and women alike to leave off brooding over loves bitter mystery and to turn instead to the mysterious order of nature, over which Fergus rules. Analysis This short poem is full of mystery and complexity. It was James Joyces favorite poem, and figures in his famous novel Ulysses, where Stephen Daedalus sings it to his dying mother. On one level, the poem represents Yeats exhortation to the young