Introduction
William Butler Yeats, a renowned poet in British Literature, claims that status by his mystic poems which cast a magic spell on his readers with abundant imagery. Most of his poems reflect his views and concepts about life and how to live it. The conservative nationalism which he held up with his life has influenced the works to a great extent. However, he never endorsed pragmatism and naturalism as a means of expression through literature and remained stuck to the relevance of imagination throughout his writings. Many critics hold a view that W. B. Yeats “rejected conventional religion while being inspired by essentially spiritual visions of human possibility.” (MacNamee, 1-2). His views on nature and human beings were distinct in many aspects and his poetry always gave an emphasis on the spiritual powers that humans possessed.
The Stolen Child, an imaginary poem, proves the ability of Yeats as an artist who dwells on mysticism in every aspect. “In the stolen child, an 1886 poem by William Butler Yeats, a fairy – one of the mainstays of European folklore – lures a child away from the only world he has ever known.” (Kelly, 1). The poem describes how a child is made to get attracted to faeries through their sweet and plentiful words. The entire poem emanates from the words of a faery trying to explain the world of faeries devoid of pain and pressure. The poet, explicating the sweet words of promises achievable in the other world unknown to the child, has been able to evoke in the readers a real sense of the charm that promises bring. The poem entwines within its soul such wonderful imagery that it convinces the audience that a fairy world is a great space for humans.
Appreciation of the poem
The poem starts with the landscape appreciation, describing the beauty of it, using the deployment of apt words. The faery says that at the end of a rocky highland belonging to a dense wood there lies a green island with birds called herons and aquatic rats. These words depict the wild beauty where the faeries keep their hideouts. She says that their places are filled with berries and cherries which the child could enjoy. Now she tries to persuade the child to come along with her saying that life together with the faeries in the forests and lakes will be much more fun and merry than ever before because the world where the child is presently living is always full of grief and sorrow. We can consider those words of faery as the words from the poet describing how he has recognized the world as. A human child will be more comfortable in a place f fantasy where faeries live than in the world of reality which always is in misery.
In the second stanza, the faery is trying to make the child more interested by telling him about the enjoyments those faeries make as the sun falls and the moon comes. She explains how she, with her companions, dances over the whole night on the sands which turn light grey due to the glossy rays of the moon. Through the words “Mingling hands and mingling glances” (Yeast, line 18), the unity and brotherhood within the faery troops are quoted. She makes the child excited by describing to him how gaily they play with the waves and bubbles when the people in the world where the child lives are worrying about various [problems and cannot even sleep at night. Again the faery is inviting the child to the world of faeries which is full of wild and water with no grievances like the current world of the child.
Now the faery is trying to make the child more clear about the enjoyments he can have with his faery friends if he joins them without haste. She says about the marvelous Glen waterfalls which is always an attraction readymade by God himself. Faery makes the child imagine plays with the waterfalls and the rush of it. The faeries always search for fishes called trouts which are sleeping and speak in soft voice into their ears and give them wonderful and fantasy dreams by leaning from the ferns which are in the shallow portions of the waterfalls. The faery is trying to plead the child after describing of the adventures the faery troops. “Even as they entice the human child from the world, they capriciously lament that he will no longer enjoy things in that world, even though he is being taken from a world that is “more full of weeping than [he] can understand”.” (Adams, 43). The faery is taking a very tricky method to take the child away with her. She is comparing the world of sorrows where the child has his existing hideout with the colorful and dreamy world of faeries. The world of faeries is having dances, plays, waves, and adventures with little place for trouble. The friendship hand of faery is extended with full heartedness giving a promise of “hand in hand.” (Yeast, line 11). The lack of unity in the real world of human beings is encountered.
The final part of the poem says that the effort of the faery has come to success at last. The child is ready to join the troop of faeries with zero rethinking she says. The decision is firmly indicated by “the solemn-eyed” (Yeast); aware of what is being done. If the child becomes a part of the family of faeries, he will no more be staying in his present world where he hears the calves mooing and the sound of the kettles with boiling substances. He will never hear the lullabies and songs sung for peace of heart and never see the mice running for the meal again. The faery is happy that the child is leaving behind his entire world possessed and embracing life with the faeries. The child who is a human being is leaving the human world for gaining the wild and water which also presents him with hands of friendship and togetherness. The child has realized that the world of humans is full of worries and cries for life while the world of faeries is just gaily and adventurous.
Conclusion
The world of sorrows always has a thirst for fantasy maybe unreal as such. The poem “The Stolen Child” exhibits “the enchanting quality that the poet claims to exist in common things is made ominous.” (Adams, 57). Through the poem, W.B. Yeats is trying to express his regret towards the sorrowful and troublesome life of this world. The lack of brotherhood and true friendship is sighed in each stanza of the poem. The poem seems to be an exact portrait of the romantic and Pre-Raphaelite touch of the time when the poem was molded. Though the poem was written during the 19th century and the facts depicted describe the situation that prevailed at that time, it finds its own special place even in this 21st century. The lack of integrity and affinity along with the troublesome life makes even the common people wish for a world of fantasy with an evergreen shower of merry and prosperity and no place for stress and strain.
Works Cited
Adams, Hazard. The Book of Yeat’s Poems. Tallahassee: The Florida State University Press, 1990: 43.
Kelly, Susan. Beauty is Found in ‘Stolen Child’. USA Today. Macon: EBSCO Mercer University, 2009.
MacNamee, Brendan. The Visionary of W. B. Yeats and Sean O’Casey. Irish Studies Review 12. Carfax Publishing, 2004.
Yeast, W. B. The Stolen Child. New York: W.W, Nortan Company, 1886.