Introduction of the Poem:
This poem ‘Among School Children’ is the result of W. B. Yeats’ experience as an Irish Senator visiting St. Otteran's School, a Church school in 1926, where teachers were nuns. The poem was written after his visit to the school. The poem moves from a direct consideration of the children he meets in the school, to a long section of recollection about his early sweetheart, Maud Gonne, and then to a passionate philosophical conclusion in which all of Yeats’ Platonic thinking blends into an exalted hymn of praise to the glory and the puzzle of human existence . A critic remarks, “The poem is an effort to synthesize or to integrate the ‘sixty - year old smiling public man’, the aged one - time lover, and the would be philosopher into something as organic as a chestnut tree as coherent as a dancer's movement.”
The word ‘Ledacan’ refers to Leda. The poet compares Maud Gonne's beauty to that of Helen, daughter of Leda and Zeus. The king of kings refers to Alexander the great, whose teacher was Aristotle. In the school the poet was received by an old nun Rev. Mother Philomena who told him that maths, reading and writing, and tailoring were taught there. At the sight of a girl in a schoolroom he is reminded of his sweetheart Maud Gonne. Then he imagines that she may be as old as the poet is. This leads him to philosophise on old age and human life.
Summary of the Poem:
The poet went to a Church school on an official visit. There he met the head - teacher and asked her what subjects were taught there. The head - teacher was kind - hearted nun wearing a white hood on her head. She told him that mathematics, singing, reading and writing and cutting and sewing were taught there. They were also taught to be neat in everything. There was followed the best modern technique of teaching. The poet felt that as if, the children were looking at him in great amazement and were curious to know who that public man was.
At the sight of the children the poet was reminded of a very beautiful woman whose image was in his mind. This image was that of Maud Gonne who was hard - hearted and who rejected the proposal of the poet. The poet was reminded of an incident that she told him about her school days, when she was badly rebuked by her teacher. The incident was trivial but the poet became very sad at it that day. Due to youthful sympathy between them, they felt that they had become one whole unit. They were like the yellow and the white substance in an egg and contradicted Plato's parable that man and woman are two separate halves of something whole in the beginning.
Due to the remembrance of that sad event of Maud Gonne's childhood life, the poet looked at children one after another, standing before him. He imagined that Maud Gonne might be resembling any of the girls in her childhood. He thought even the most beautiful and the ugliest girls possess some of the similar features. One girl looked like Maud Gonne to him, and he felt joyed.
But the face of Maud Gonne wrinkled and spoiled due to her old age appeared before his mind's eye. He felt as if her cheeks were hollow and she used to eat shadows in place of food and drank wind in place of water. The poet asked himself if the face of Maud was drawn and painted by some painter of the fifteenth century. The poet says that he did not take himself for a handsome man and he was not making fun of her face. He himself was never handsome, still in his youth he was regarded as a handsome young man. But he was old then. He should not be sad with the bad remarks of others, rather should smile at their mocking at his old age.
A young mother becomes glad to see her son in her lap sleeping or awake. The child having drunk the honey of milk forgets all things about him. He cries, smiles, sleeps and wakes; it seems that he does so due to the effect of the medicine of his memories of his past life. But if the young mother imagines that her child is an old man of sixty and is lying in her lap, she shall be certainly unhappy. She does not like the idea that her son in whose birth she underwent labour pangs and for whose upbringing she remained much worried , should become old and should suffer from the sufferings of old age. On the other hand, she wishes her son to live long.
Neither the love of mother nor the high intellect of man can keep him away from old age. Plato, Aristotle and Pythagoras were great Greek philosophers. Plato called the visible world unreal. Aristotle was practical and became the teacher of Alexander, the great. The thighs of Pythagoras were of gold as if he were a god. He discovered the mystery of numbers and music. Though their theories were, beyond the understanding of the people and goddesses of arts, In spite of their great intelligence these philosophers grew old and became like scare - crows in their old age.
Nuns and mothers both worship idols. Nuns worship idols of Christ, Virgin Mary, saints and cross while mothers worship the idols of their children. These children are their hopes and imaginations. The idols of the nuns are not alive while the idols of mothers are live children. The idols of the nuns are made of marble or metal, hence they are still, while children are living creatures, but they grow old. In this way, both types of idols break the hearts of their worshippers. Both kinds of idols are the creations of the selfishness of men. So, they mock at their selfish love and desires.
Love of a lover blossoms and dances when he does not have selfish desire to please his soul through his bodily labour. Love towards a woman should not be selfish. Selfishness is the cause of the despair of the lover. O chestnut tree which is like a man, your roots are your soul and you blossom in the form of rebirth. A man is not only body, soul or Manas. He is the union of all these three the body, the Manas and the Soul. A chestnut tree is not only roots, flowers or leaves but combined form of all these three things. You are dancing on the music of Indriyas, your eyes are bright with joy but you derive this joy from music, dancer and dance. Among them music is that of Indriyas, dancer is the body and dance is the movement of the body. All these three things united give pleasure. They cannot be separated from one another.
Critical Appreciation of the Poem:
Introduction:
The poem ‘Among School Children’ is one of very famous poems of W. B. Yeats. Though the poem is complex, it is widely read and appreciated. It is a product of Yeats’ experience as An Irish Senator of Educational Committee making a semi - official visit to St. Otteran's school, Waterford, Ireland. He visited the school in February 1926 and the poem is supposed to be written in the same year. At that time he was about sixty years old. At the school he was received by an old nun - the head teacher Rev. Mother Philomena. The poem moves from a direct consideration of the children he meets to a long discussion of his recollection about his young life and his sweetheart Maud Gonne, and then to a passionate philosophical conclusion.
A Series of Parallel Trinities in the Poem: He has a number of parallel trinities. One trinity is the sixty years old smiling public man (the poet), the aged one time lover (Maud Gonne), and the would be philosopher (the poet). The efforts are made to organise all them into one whole. Then there is the baby, the youth and the ‘old scarecrow’ metamorphosis common to all men. These are three kinds of images worshipped by lovers, nuns and mothers. These are the ‘presences’ known to passion (lovers), piety (nuns) and affection (mothers). These are three great philosophers, trying to find out reality— Plato finds it in unnatural ‘ghostly’ forms, soldier Aristotle finds it in Nature, and Pythagoras discovers it in art. All these trios lead Yeats to the final discovery that blossoming and dancing whether the organism is poem, person, tree or dancer. The poet himself is neither one time lover of Maud Gonne, nor one time child of his mother, John Butler Yeats, nor philosopher, nor school inspector, nor poet, but rather the compound of all those separate selves, as the chestnut tree is a compound of all three parts, its roots, blossoms and leaves and the delight of the dancer is in dance, music and his own performance.
The Poetic Thought:
The poet walks through the class - room and asks the head teacher what subjects are taught there. The teacher tells him that the children are taught to do sums, to read books, to cut and sew and to be neat and clean in everything. Then the poet looks at the children and finds them to be in wonder to know who that public visitor is. A little girl's face reminds him of his one-time sweetheart Maud Gonne who refused his proposal for marriage. He also remembers an incident of her school life when she was badly rebuked by her teacher. Yeats sympathised with her and due to his youthful sympathy the poet and Maud Gonne got united into one whole as the yellow and the white substance are found together in the shell of an egg. He looks at the faces of the little girls and wants to see whose face resembles the face of Maud Gonne at that age. One little girl seems to him like Maud Gonne in her childhood. He imagines that Maud Gonne is standing before him. But soon Maud Gonne's face wrinkled by old age appears in his mind. Its cheeks are hollow, and it is a week face. The poet wonders up it were a real face or only a painting. It brings him to his own old age. He says that old age is unavoidable so he should not be sad at his old age.
No mother likes her son to be old and lying in her lap though she wishes her son to live long. Even the great intellectual thinkers and philosophers cannot escape from being old. Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, great Greek philosophers became old and looked like scarecrows in their old age.
Nuns, mothers, lovers and devotees all worship images. Nuns and devotees worship the idols of Christ. Virgin Mary and saints, mothers worship the idols of their children who are living images. Lovers worship their beloveds. But all these idols of the work of man's selfish desire and they disappoint their worshippers. The worshippers devotees get disappointed when their desires are not fulfilled. Mother's heart is broken when her son becomes old and wrinkled. The lovers are disappointed when they do not get the response of their love. So a worshipper or a lover may.be happy if he is selfless and is not affected by failure or success, pain or pleasure, defeat or victory. Man should work for the good of his body, mind and soul together, because he is the combination of all three as a chestnut tree is a unity of roots, blossoms and leaves and delight of dance lies in dance, music and dancer.
Four Doctrines of Upanishads:
The four following doctrines of the Upanishads are propounded in the poem:
(1) The doctrine of selfless work:
A man should not work for any selfish aim or desire. He should not wish to get the fruit of his work. It is seen in the following lines:
“Labour is blossoming or dancing where
The body is not bruised to pleasure soul
Nor beauty born out of its own despair.”
(2) The doctrine of Equaminous consideration:
A man should treat alike his success and failure, pleasure and pain, profit and loss, victory and defeat. The Gita also teaches this doctrine. The following line of the third stanza reflects this view:
“Nor clear - eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.”
(3) The doctrine of Vedantic Trinity:
According to it a person is made of three things — the body, the mind and the self-called Atman or the Soul. Yeats describes man as the chestnut tree which is a compound whole of ‘the great root’ (the Atman or the Soul), the leaf (the leafy body), and the ‘blossom’ (the mind, the cause of rebirth or the seed).
(4) The doctrine of the well - being of the Soul:
According to Upanishads a man lives for the development and well - being of his soul. Soul should not be neglected while we can neglect the pleasure of the body or the Indriyas. The body is short - lived while the soul is eternal.
Imagery:
The poet has used images lavishly. ‘A Ledacan body’ ‘bent above a sinking fire’ means a very beautiful woman like Helen, daughter of Leda. This image is used for Maud Gonne who was cruel and who refused to poet's proposal. The image brings to our mind the daughters of Leda and Swan of ancient Greek legend. “Hollow of cheek as it drank the wind. And took a mess of shadow for its meat?” gives the picture of old Maud Gonne who became ugly having hollow checks. The poet imagines as if she drank wind in place of water and ate shadows in place of food so she became hollow checked faced woman. There is the image of an ‘old scarecrow’ and a young woman with a new born baby on her lap. It means that a young mother never likes the idea of her son becoming old and ugly and lying on her lap. She enjoys the newly born baby on her lap. The reference is to the mortal body that decays and dies. The images of Plato's parables appear in the poem. In one, man and woman are represented as two separate halves of a sometime whole. In another, objects of the universe appear as shadows hiding reality behind them. In an image idols mock at their worshippers and ‘break hearts’. These images are ‘self - born mockers of man's enterprise’. They use all images made by men for their selfish desires. In the last stanza sensual experience is represented as ‘clear - eyed wisdom’ and soul as the ‘midnight oil’ that is as an oil lamp burning in pitch dark and illuminating little space around it. Then the man is represented as the great - rooted ‘chestnut tree’. Man is body, mind and soul as the chestnut tree is blossoms, leaves and roots combined together.
All the Ingredient of the Poem Well Interwoven:
There are several different ingredients but they are so properly and appropriately interwoven that the poem has become one organic unity. The actual class - room scene, the head - teacher and the poet asking her about the school subjects and its method of teaching, little children in the class – room, the personal emotions of the poet that it awakens, and the general speculative which these emotions suggest, have been interwoven and made to play upon each other. A complex subject has been treated in the most concentrated form without any confusion, perceptions, fancies, feelings and thoughts all have their place in the poem, the poet turns from the children to the old age and the childhood of Maud Gonne his one-time sweetheart, her old age and her loss of beauty have made him question the worth of natural life. This leads him to what Greek philosophers have said of Nature and human life as a natural process.
The Poetic Diction:
The poem starts in a prosaic manner. But the sight of the children stirs his imagination and his emotions. He feels that his heart is beating wildly to see a little girl in the class - room, who is like Maud Gonne in her childhood. He is shocked to imagine Maud Gonne as an ugly old lady. He realises that he is a man of sixty so she should be old like him. He perceives her hollow - checked face and becomes sad. He becomes ironical and refers to Plato, Aristotle and Pythagoras. He smiles to see them all growing old as ‘Old clothes upon sticks to scare a bird’. Then his mood becomes philosophical and imaginative. He addresses idols as the ‘self - mockers of men's enterprise’. The poem consists of eight stanzas. Each stanza is made up of eight lines. In the first five stanzas, the first line rhymes with the third and the fifth, the second line rhymes with the fourth and the sixth. Each stanza ends with a rhyming couplet.
Each verse of each stanza has five iambic feet, ten syllables. Here and there, there are changes in stresses to break monotony. The rhythm rises and falls according as the poetic thought demands. The rhythm is charming and the cadence is striking. The diction of the poem is clear but with symbolical words and classical allusions that make it a little difficult. The poem is full of imaginative and emotion and subjective feelings. The metaphors and images are appropriate.
Conclusion:
‘Among School Children’ is a subjective, speculative and philosophical at the same time. All these three moods are well woven and give the impact of one whole poem. The visit of the poet to the school is official, but the faces of girls remind him of his sweetheart Maud Gonne who was as beautiful as Helen. Soon he realises that he is a man of sixty so Maud Gonne also may be of the same age, old and wrinkled. This leads him to speculate on old age and life in general. Then he says that mothers, nuns and lovers worship idols but for their selfish desires. He quotes three Greek philosophers Plato, Aristotle and Pythagoras who talked much of Nature were highly intellectual but could not avoid old age. He also gives the message that soul should be given primary importance.
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