W. B. Yeats

Hy readers! This blog is a part of an activity assigned by Dilip Barad sir English Department, MKBU. In this blog I am going to write about the poems of W.B Yeats 'The Scholars' and 'Among School Children'

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was born in Sandymount, Dublin in 1865 and raised in Co. Sligo, London, and Dublin. He is the greatest poet of Ireland. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. William Butler Yeats was an instrumental part of the "Irish Literary Revival" that redefined Irish writing and it is impossible to imagine 20th century Irish literature without him. Throughout his long career, Yeats influenced countless generations of dramatists and poets, including American writer Ezra Pound. Here we discussed 'The Scholars' and 'Among School Children' written by W.B.Yeats 

'The Scholars' By William Butler Yeats

Bald heads forgetful of their sins,

Old, learned, respectable bald heads

Edit and annotate the lines

That young men, tossing on their beds,

Rhymed out in love’s despair

To flatter beauty’s ignorant ear.

All shuffle there; all cough in ink;

All wear the carpet with their shoes;

All think what other people think;

All know the man their neighbour knows.

Lord, what would they say

Did their Catullus walk that way?

Analysis:

'The Scholars' was written between 1914 and April 1915 and is included in the 1919 collection The Wild Swans at Coole. This little piece of poetry is split into two stanzas with equal number of lines. Bald heads are the scholars, whose scholarly conducts have been ridiculed in this poem. They are 'forgetful of their sins'. Whatever wrongs they do are forgotten by them because, ironically, they are 'bald' by amassing knowledge by deep and long study. 

In the poem “The Scholars” by Yeats, the image of old, dull and boring “professors” is presented as they spend most of their time studying the exciting and passionate poems written by the young poets. The poem begins with what we call a metonymy, or the use of a part to refer to the whole.In the second phrase of the first line, we see that the bald heads are not heads themselves but real and complete persons. Now we realize that the speaker is bitterly criticizing forgetful old men. In the next line he says that the old and learned bald heads are 'respectable', and for the moment we get a feeling that he is regarding old, bald heads with respect. Also, the line “all think what other people think” highlights the fact that the poems are so deeply implanted into their soul and “the scholars” spend so much time reviewing the poems that they begin to think the same way, with no new or creative interpretations, and that they have forgotten the true meaning which lays behind the pens of the poets. 

The couplet in the poem suggests two different interpretations for the study of literature. The study of literature may lead the people to the path of becoming dull and boring just like the scholars described by Yeats. Though there is also another suggestion, where the studying of literature may enhance the reflection of scholars to be less repetitive, and to be inspired by the young poets with their passion and enthusiasm. 'The Scholars' has carried a distasteful tone throughout the poem together with sarcasm. There are both direct and indirect criticisms of the old scholars. 

'Among School Children' By William Butler Yeats.

CLICK HERE FOR READ POEM 'AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN '

William Butler Yeats published 'Among School Children' in his famous 1928 collection of poems, The Tower. In the poem, the speaker's visit to one such school prompts him to reflect on old age, youth, beauty, and change. Although old age brings a decline from the beauty and freshness of youth. The poem begins in the first person.

According to W.H. Hudson,

"Yeats has a knack of raising occasional poetry to the level of profound poetry of universal appeal and significance. ‘Among School Children’ can be cited as an example."

'Among School Children’ is written in the Italian verse form called ottava rima, rhymed abababcc. In the first Stanza the poet tells that he is on a visit to a female Convent School, located in Waterford. It is an all-girls school where students ranging from four to seven. In 1926, a committee was appointed in order to find out the situation of the Irish education system at that time. As a Senator, Yeats visited this school, administered by nuns and according to the Montessori method. The poet further shares that he went through all the classrooms and asked various questions. An aged and generous nun, wearing a white dress was guiding him everywhere and answering his questions. Children were taking lessons in mathematics, music, sewing, and cutting. They were also taking knowledge of history and reading books. Children are taught to stay clean and tidy in everything they do. 

The second stanza of 'Among School Children' tells that the poet is thinking about his love, Maud Gonne. She was a lady who was known for her elegance and prettiness just like Leda. Leda was the mother of Helen for whom the Trojan war fought. The poet is an old man now and thought about Maud Gonne who would also be an old lady now. He is thinking about their private conversation during his young days and is reminded of an incident that Gonne told him. A teacher insulted her and she felt this tragedy was an unforgettable one. 

In the third stanza, the poet has jumped back to the real world in the classroom that he is visiting as a Senator from the world of fantasy. The purpose of looking at these girls’ faces was so that he could find Maud Gonne amongst these faces. As he thinks so, an idea struck his mind that even such powerful ladies like Gonne or Helen were like these normal children in their childhood. Helen was the daughter of Leda and Zeus, who came in the form of Swan. He felt as if this girl in front of him is Maud Gonne as she was. The fourth stanza begins with Maud still firmly in Yeats’s consciousness but now it is “Her present image”. Yeats had also been married for nine years by this time, but that did not stop him wondering about what might have been had Maud accepted him. She is now “hollow of cheek”, and Yeats imagines an image from a Renaissance painting.

In the fifth stanza Yeats’s thoughts veer completely away from Maud and focus instead on his own mother, who would have been “youthful” at the time of his own birth in 1865. He wonders what she would have thought had she been able to see how her son had turned out. Would she have regarded him as adequate “compensation” for the pain of childbirth and all the inconveniences of bringing him up? Yeats leaves the question unanswered. The sixth stanza leaps back even further to wonder about the thoughts of Plato, Aristotle and Pythagoras, all of whom had theories about education. However, the point of this stanza is to draw a parallel between the poet’s own scarecrow-like appearance and that of his forebears as educators, all of whom would turn into “Old clothes upon old sticks to scare a bird”. He seems to be saying that perhaps he should not regard his role as being unimportant and that “scarecrows” can still make a difference.

In the seventh stanza Yeats draws parallels between the religious devotions of the nuns who run the school and the devotion that the mothers of the children have towards their offspring. He makes the point that the children are every bit as worthy of worship as the images of marble or bronze. They are the receptacles of a holy presence and symbols of “heavenly glory”. The eighth stanza leads on from the seventh and serves to pose questions rather than supply answers. Yeats uses images of blossoming and dancing to symbolize the life that is burgeoning in the children and which is being nurtured physically by the children’s mothers and intellectually by the nuns. 

'Among School Children' is a poem that repays re-reading, because there is a lot of meaning that can be gleaned from it and which is not apparent at first glance. It incorporates elements of myth and symbolism, combined with personal thoughts and memories. It is a complex poem that was subtly and skilfully crafted by a master of his art who knew exactly what he was doing.

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