Stolen Child Flashcards
In his early works, Yeats often used…
…soft, romantic words and often based poems on Irish legend.
In the poem a human child is…
…enticed away into a fairyland. The child forgets his friends/family at home as the fairies are so enchanting, that he follows them. They convince him that their world is playful/joyful, while the human world is full of tears.
The poem progresses through the country…
…around the town of Sligo, in Ireland. This is where Yeats spent his youth, as it was his mothers hometown.
Fantasy world contrasts the real world.
Represents the dissatisfaction feels for the real world. Yeats describes the supernatural world he has created by providing us with information of its qualities and dimensions.
In this land the fairies are said to have…
…“Faery vats, full of berries/And of the reddest stolen cherries”. The idea of fruit being stolen suggests they are not as innocent as they appear - sinister. Stolen fruits may suggest the child has lost his innocence.
Yeats describes the dancing of the fairies in the moonlight.
He employs the concept of chasing frothy bubbles which suggests a certain degree of freedom. Although, the island Yeats describes is isolated by water.
Symbolically, the island could…
…act as the child’s guardian angel. Protecting and preserving his innocence.
Yeats continues to portray images of freedom. “Wandering…
…water gushes”. This identifies the power of these spirits and their ability to influence everyone’s destiny.
Yeats equates these spirits to his theory of gyres. He believes life…
…progresses in a vortex, and it’s,events take the course of this shape, one cannot control them. Link to second coming.
Last stanza. Associative imagery of “calves”,
“Kettles”, and “Mice” with a county home. May suggest how modern society has enslaved nature.
Yeats portrays his disappointment with modern society, especially to do with…
…the increased violence in society as well as its negative effects on both Maud Gonne and Constance Markiewicz. He does so in “A bronze head”, referring to her frequent political appearances, turned into a “dark tomb haunted” from the gentle woman in his memory. Easter/In memory…
Written in…
…1886. One of Yeats’ early poems. He was 21 at the time.
