The Stolen Child

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THE STOLEN CHILD

  • Yeats was 21 when he wrote the Stolen Child, at the beginning of his career. The plot of the poem is a metaphor for the return of innocence
  • The child could be a metaphor for Ireland.
  • Enticed away in to a fairyland- the child forgots his friends and family at home because the fairies were so poetic and enchanting.
  • 'Leafy island'- Isolated by water- enables nature to maintain thw wildness.
  • The fantasy world Yeats creates sharply contrasts with the real world- a fairy representing his disatisfaction with the real world. 'Come away, O human child! The waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand. For the worlds more full of weeping than you can understand' -the human world is full of tears and their land is full of joyfulness.
  • 'Moonlight glosses' qualities of this supernatural world.
  • 'Hand in hand'  is what parents usually do with children, the children place their trust in their parents to keep them safe'.
  • 'And chase the frothy bubbles'- certain degree of freedom
  • 'While the world is full troubles'- contrast freedom-duxta position.
  • The form develops the plot.
  • 'Solemn-eyed' represents a loss of innocence.
  • In the last stanza, Yeats starts to describe the…

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