The Stolen Child by W.B Yeats - Explanation
The poem "The Stolen Child" penned by William Butler Yeats, published in 1889 in "The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems". The poem reflects the influence of Romantic literature as it features Escapism and imagination. It is loosely a fairy tale based on Irish legends describing how a fairy tempts a child to come to her own world where there is no sadness, no weeping, unlike the human world.
Stanza 1
The narrator talks about an island with green flora which lies where the rocky highland adjoins a lake. In the lake, Herons hunt the sleepy aquatic rodents. The narrator reveals that they have hidden a vessel, containing "stolen cherries". It seems that the narrator is not embarking on the island alone. In the next line, he reveals his companion who is a human child. He says to the child to come with a fairy (the narrator is a fairy) holding her hands to the water and the forest. The narrator justifies her suggestion by telling the child that the world is not a happy place and there is only pain and adversities which is beyond the child's understanding.
Stanza 2
The narrator adds that they would walk on foot all night on the "dim gray sands" under the moonlight. They say that they would dance while holding hand in hand and unify their cheerful spirits until the moon sets down. They wander there and catch bubbles while whole world is full of troubles and people sleep in restlessness as problems never leave them in peace. The fairy urges the human child to come with "them" to the water and experience the beauty of the wild, holding hand in hand with her away from the world full of distress and melancholy which is too much to understand for the child at the moment.
Stanza 3
The place from where the water at high hills move towards lower regions and plains and fill the streams and lakes there. It seems that the water could immerse a whole star. The narrator and the child engage in fun and frolic activities such as teasing sleepy Trouts(a species of fish) and whispering in its ears, causing interruptions for Trouts to dream. Voluntary pouring out dew from Fern's water reserve into the stream are inter alia, done by the narrator and her companion. The narrator persuades the child to come with her to the natural surroundings of forest and water bodies as the human world is not a decent place, all it has tears and grief which at the moment the child couldn't understand.
Stanza 4
At last, the child decides to go with them. The narrator admits that the child would hear no more the mooing of bovines on the hillside settled by human beings. There would be no sights of kettle under a fire, nor there would brown mice moving around a container. The child then goes with them to the water and the natural environment and leaves the world of distress and tensions.
Stanza 1
The narrator talks about an island with green flora which lies where the rocky highland adjoins a lake. In the lake, Herons hunt the sleepy aquatic rodents. The narrator reveals that they have hidden a vessel, containing "stolen cherries". It seems that the narrator is not embarking on the island alone. In the next line, he reveals his companion who is a human child. He says to the child to come with a fairy (the narrator is a fairy) holding her hands to the water and the forest. The narrator justifies her suggestion by telling the child that the world is not a happy place and there is only pain and adversities which is beyond the child's understanding.
Stanza 2
The narrator adds that they would walk on foot all night on the "dim gray sands" under the moonlight. They say that they would dance while holding hand in hand and unify their cheerful spirits until the moon sets down. They wander there and catch bubbles while whole world is full of troubles and people sleep in restlessness as problems never leave them in peace. The fairy urges the human child to come with "them" to the water and experience the beauty of the wild, holding hand in hand with her away from the world full of distress and melancholy which is too much to understand for the child at the moment.
Stanza 3
The place from where the water at high hills move towards lower regions and plains and fill the streams and lakes there. It seems that the water could immerse a whole star. The narrator and the child engage in fun and frolic activities such as teasing sleepy Trouts(a species of fish) and whispering in its ears, causing interruptions for Trouts to dream. Voluntary pouring out dew from Fern's water reserve into the stream are inter alia, done by the narrator and her companion. The narrator persuades the child to come with her to the natural surroundings of forest and water bodies as the human world is not a decent place, all it has tears and grief which at the moment the child couldn't understand.
Stanza 4
At last, the child decides to go with them. The narrator admits that the child would hear no more the mooing of bovines on the hillside settled by human beings. There would be no sights of kettle under a fire, nor there would brown mice moving around a container. The child then goes with them to the water and the natural environment and leaves the world of distress and tensions.