Among School Children by W.B Yeats ( Modern Poetry)

Modern Literature by Famous Modern Poets: 

Among School Children by William Butler Yeats

Short Summary & Analysis:

This poem is written in Ottawa Rima rhyme scheme. There are total 8 stanzas and each stanza has 8 lines where first 6 lines are rhymed and last two lines are a couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABABABCC.

·        Stanza 1 to 4:

William Butler Yeats visited this school in 1926 when he was a 60 year old man. He was constantly reminded of his lover, youth and age. We see a reflection between two phases and the gradual change. Youth represents beautiful round face, innocence, young days full of joy. Whereas age represents a scarecrow, dullness, a tattered coat upon a stick. He is constantly reminded of his own and his beloved Modgone’s childhood memories and he alludes to many mythical figures like the myth of Lida being visited by Zeus in the form of Swan.

The tension between conflicting realities of youth and age is the subject central to this poem. The poet continuously moves back and forth to his past when he was a beautiful child and to his present when he is an old man like a scarecrow. In the third stanza we see that he remembers his beloved Modgone as a young beautiful child and now at present as a hollow cheeked woman. This is Renaissance way of painting in which hollow cheeks are painted to show no meat, no roundness of cheeks. It is not a good recollection, how life changes from a beautiful beginning to the decaying image of an old man, of a scarecrow, of a tattered coat upon a stick. Then by saying And better to smile on all that smile,  he mocks at himself calling himself a scarecrow. He still gets enjoyed around him.

·        Stanza 5: What youthful. . . .   setting forth?

Honey is a kind of drug here like when you drink it, you forget your past. The poet alludes to the myth of cave of nymphs in Odyssey. Odysseus  was offered honey and as soon as he drank honey, he forgot his past life. Here Yeats says, Yeats and mother believed in the philosophy of Plato, that we had lived before this and that was our actual existence. When a child drinks mother’s milk, it is like honey to him because it erases the parental. In the first line, shame is the baby of that mother. Honey of generations means it can be honey in actual sense or it can be milk. The struggles and efforts these babies perform is also symbolic escape. These babies have this choice either to save their pre existence memory or they could prefer to drink milk. The baby prefers to drink milk and forgets about his past memory.

Then poet talks about mother’s labor that she can see her baby in her lap and thinks how this baby would be turned into an old aged man after 60 years. She thinks in her mind whether all her struggles in giving birth to her baby and raising him all these years is worth doing or not. One thing we can notice is the use of the word winter instead of spring. It directly points to the sadness of poet as he can not free himslef of the disappointment of his old age.

·        Stanza 6: Plato thought nature. . . . scare a bird.

In this stanza Yeats alludes to many philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Socrates and Pythagoras. Plato was a student of Socrates and Socrates killed himself by drinking poison. Plato was disillusioned how a great philosopher had to die like this due to some politics. Aristotle was the student of Plato and also the teacher of Alexander the great. Spumes means the the bubbles that are formed over water. These are insignificant things that are seen but are not actually there. Similarly things we see around us are shadows. He talks about the theory of imitation by Plato. Then he talks about Pythagoras who had one thigh made of gold. This is a myth not a historical  reference. He thought that all the stars run in the sphere, and this music is heard only by gods and goddesses. He talks about 3 philosophers and their philosophies and says that though they are great philosophers but their philosophies could not reconcile the images of this old age. He is of the view that what is their purpose  if they could not find a remedy to turn an aged man into his young stage. He is deeply disappointed and has deep remorse of his old age. So he finds all of them as useless persons.

·        Stanza 7: Both nuns. . . . man’s enterprise.

In this stanza he returns back to nuns and mothers because he is present at a school where there are nuns. The candle lights are lightened by these nuns. He compares nuns and mothers saying that a mother worship the living thing and a nun worship non living objects. The nuns worship the statues of bronze and marble means the statues of Mary and Jesus. Whereas a mother worships her own child and her whole world revolves around him. Yet both the nun and the mother break hearts. A mother spoils her child in her love and a nun spoils in her worship. Nun here is actually used for Modgone. Passion is used for worship, piety for morally sound and affection for love. He says even with all these qualities, it can not solve any problem poet is facing. He is mocking again saying that no matter how pious a mother and nun can be, but they cannot bring any significant change to his old age. Man's enterprise means all labor of man's life. Whatever effort man does, the end is just a scarecrow, a tattered gown upon a stick.

·        Stanza 8:  Labour is blossoming. . . from the dance.

Labor means whole attempts and efforts a person can do. Previously the poet had remorse but in this last stanza he somehow finds a resolution. Here he talks about the labor that is creative labor,  where body is not bruised to pleasure soul. You don’t really feed your soul to hurt your body. When physicality goes into harmony and oneness with soul, then there is blossoming. If we concentrate only on our soul and forget about our body making it a scarecrow then it is a mockery. If we take them together side by side in a proper harmony then we would see blossoming. Chestnut tree is a very important symbol here as it was present in that school. He looks at this tree and it provides a metaphor for him. All the parts of a tree like roots, trunk, branches, flowers etc. are important. We cannot say only flowers are important because if there are no roots then there will be no tree or flowers. If we see all the parts separately then there is nothing important about them but if they unite together then the tree is important as a whole.  The poet realizes how life with all its labor, intellect, human body, animal self and the soul, combines to become one perfect whole like a chestnut tree. This is where immortality or perfection is attained i.e. the dancer and the dance becomes one. The dance is spiritual harmony and dancer is physical self, body. When they unite and become one, it leads to immortality.

Blossoming and dancing is the perfect movement and harmony that poet wants to achieve. This is the kind of harmony present in universal music, in the movement of stars, which is only heavenly glory. Man has to look upon his life as a whole, not just a body, not just a soul, not just intellect but as a beautiful whole when they combine together. They must combine into one dance, then the dance and dancer becomes one. This is the perfection that is desirable to be achieved when there is no aging, when there is no decay, remorse or bitterness. This is the oneness poet has been looking throughout the whole poem and he finally resolves it in the image of a chestnut tree. This is a metaphor for whole of the human existence.