Among School Children by Yeats Model Answer

A/L English Literature Help by RCF:
Poem No. 21: "Among School Children" by W.B. Yeats

A sample question and answer on the poem:
Yeat's Among School Children deals with the anxieties about old age and decay. Discuss.
Yeats’ poetry communicates potent and universal ideas, which continue to make his poetry of
relevance to today’s audience. His excellence in artistic expression enables him to intertwine his
own ideas and philosophies and contextual issues, and as such we as responders are presented
with the unique view points, philosophies and Yeats’ self perceptions whilst simultaneously
provided with an opportunity to broaden our understanding and perspectives on life, and explore
universal themes, which are still relevant in our society. Among School Children’ and’ Wild
Swans at Coole’, deep examine the transcendental tensions between the purpose of life and the
eventual decline of physical and spiritual aging through self reflection and retrospection. Yeats’
intense preoccupation with the processes aging is clearly evident. Among School Children
reflects an intense concern with the process of growing old with its associated notions of decay
and the looming threat of death on both a psychical and spiritual level.
The imagery of an aged man as a ‘scarecrow’ is prominent throughout several of Yeats poems
and it is certainly not coincidental that nearly all the examples of this image are connected to his
thoughts on aging. As the reader, it is hard to escape the fact that the speaker is a man of
advanced age and we are reminded of this in the first stanza when he imagines the children’s
perceptions of him as ‘a sixty-year old smiling public man’. This description takes away from the
bitterness and sadness of such an image. However, although he is smiling, this is his public face
which hides the thoughts of anguish and regret that invade his perceptions of children. The
hollow vacant smile depicted is the result of, in Yeats’ opinion, not having lived a life that in
resulted in anything of significance. Due to his ongoing frustration with his inability to attain the
woman he most desired, Maude Gonne, Yeats is suggesting that old age is one of the most
frightening of life’s dilemmas when accompanied with an unfulfilled life. For Yeats aging was
both undignified and morbid process.
In one the most poignant stanzas of Among School Children, stanza V, the speaker wonders
about a mother observing her son. He wonders if a mother would think the eventual decay
associated with aging would change things for her somehow if ‘did she but see that shape with
sixty or more winters on its head, a compensation for the pang of his birth’. In other words, if a
mother was to see the eventual state of a child, who has lived and been young but is now a mere
‘scarecrow’ would the joys and trepidations of birth, motherhood or even life itself be worth
it?.Through this action in particular Yeats is attempting to recapture youth through the idea of
being born, of questioning not only the aesthetics of a child, but also what they would become
and how they would age. Among School Children is certainly a poem rife with imagery of youth,
it is still ultimately a poem about the process of aging and decay which reflects the artist’s
ruminant and contemplative nature. In the final stanza of Among School Children Yeats ends his
quest to unite his fragmented existence by concluding with idea that there is no way to separate
the ‘dancer from the dance’.
He learns that it is impossible to divide life into each individual part and that instead we must
view life with a ‘brightening glance’, seeing the beauty of life in its entirety, including the
inevitable stage of decline. Through the deep examination of the universal questioning of the
value of life, Yeats comes to terms with his own life and comes to a sense of contentment with
his old age. The Wild Swans at Coole is a deeply personal piece which examines the cycle of life
and transcendental truths of aging and mortality through nature.
Yeats puts a significant amount of effort into describing the landscape at Coole Park as it
ultimately supplies him with the backdrop for the emotional and spiritual action of the piece. The
time of year is ‘autumn’, the season of decay and the time of day is ‘twilight’, the hour of
decline. The impact of the poignant imagery is furthered by its juxtaposition of the swans,
symbol of a sense of departed youth and perpetuity against the persona’s inner turmoil, ‘I have
looked upon these brilliant creatures, and now my heart is sore’. His soreness is caused by the
realisation of the change which he has subsequently undergone and as the swans rise, he has a
moment of epiphany in which he realises the extent to which he has age. The weariness and pain
felt by the persona, the result of the inevitable process of aging, is directly contrasted against the
seemingly ever-renewing and free unwearied natural world which the swans are a part of. While
the ‘wild swans’ have retained their passion, the persona has lost his.
The Wild Swans at Cool makes a powerful statement about how fleeting human life is when
contrasted with nature’s transcending beauty and reflects Yeats’ inner turmoil as a result of his
constant ruminations on the purpose of life and the inevitable process of aging and decline. For
Yeats, aging was hardly a dignified process but was rather one of sadness, opportunity for regret,
and of retrospection. Despite this rather grim analysis of life, his observations are not all tinged
with anxiety and estrangement. While the reader gets the impression that Yeats wishes he could
travel back in time and correct his mistakes or live again in youth, there are few, if any,
comments made in any of his poetry about such a wish. Even though he may feel unfulfilled, he
is content to wonder about becoming the ‘scarecrow’ of old age and eventual death, but rarely, if
ever, does he drift into long examinations of what he might have done differently.
While his love of Maud Gonne may not have been fulfilled and although he may have second
thoughts about the poetry of his youth, he remains realistic in his acceptance of inevitable
decline. Although this is hardly something to reflect upon with beauty, it is something that can be
discussed with integrity, despite the tone of sadness. Yeats may never have felt completely
satisfied with his life, but his vast collection of poetry gives attention to the inevitable dilemma
of aging and decline and the innate questioning of life’s purpose.

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A/L English Literature Help by RCF:

Poem No. 21: "Among School Children" by W.B. Yeats

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