The Stolen Child LO To explore the central

‘The Stolen Child’ LO: To explore the central metaphor of the poem and consider Yeats’ key concerns

Celtic Culture and Faeries The poem was written in 1886, and published in 1889. He. Yeats wrotewas two 21 works, is ofit, interests: when which he wrote and at the beginning of his The Celtic It. Twilight (1893, career. celebrates the 1902) stories of Ireland that his mother loved. are consciously quaint. Yeats would Fairy and. The Folkimages Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888) fairy. Peasantry, lore. In later Fairy compile and Folkbooks Tales of of Irish the Irish is not only description of fairies; it is a collection of works, poems and authors, as T. Crofton and Lady • prose, Yeatsfrom was other a dreamer andsuch visionary who was. Croker fascinated by Wilde. folk-lore, ballad and superstitions about the Irish Hisdivided poetry the has fairies Celtic flavour In peasantry. this work, he into twomixed broadwith categories: mysticism andor melancholy. His aim in writing poetry was Trooping Fairies Social Fairies to make the world conscious about the beauties of Celtic Solitary Fairies literature. As he grew older, he deviated from pleasant lyrics to verses with sterner discipline and deeper • thought. According to folklore, a fairy would secretly exchange a mortal infant with that of the fairy kind. The fairy baby was called changeling. Sometimes, the stolen babies were • Asreturned he did though, his style grew grand austere, to the families, especially when a person can moving away y from the lush, folkloric description of this expose the true nature of the changeling. The changeling lovely early poem. Yeats may have loved Ireland in the existed in all folklore and fairy tales. abstract, and expressed its spirit more than well enough • to. According to Yeats, the in stolen baby will live inthe a place of win a Nobel Prize, but this poem he loved actual full "good living andand music and place in all its reality, with allmirth". the intense enthusiasm • of his youth.

A Reading • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Xf 1 x. Bx 7 J Is 4&safe=active • Highlight the following: - Key images you think are powerful or important - Key events in the narrative of the poem

Summary • This poem is based on Irish legends in which fairies entice a child to go away with them and then replace it with a changeling. Changelings were considered comparatively ugly and wooden. • In your pairs, write a short summary of each stanza detailing exactly what happens. (This will be typed up and added to our anthology)

‘The Stolen Child’ Lesson 2 LO: Close analysis of language, form and structure. Homework: Learn the key poetic terms for a subject knowledge test on Monday

Key Questions: Your Feedback 1) How does Yeats characterise the real world and the fairy world? (look at the contrasts made throughout the poem) 2) To what extent is this a poem about loss? You should explore different possible interpretations in your answer. 3) What do you think are Yeats’ key concerns in the poem? Could the events of the stolen child be a metaphor for something else? 4) How are the images of nature and freedom presented in the poem? (relate to Romanticism) 3: Highlight 3 lines/quotes/images which address your question 2: Annotate your 2 strongest with key interpretations and poetic devices 1: Be ready to present one to the class with full analysis and explain how it addresses you question

Group Work • In your groups discuss and answer the key questions. • Be ready to feedback to the whole class.

The Transition from Romanticism to Modernism • Yeats started his long literary career as a romantic poet and gradually evolved into a modernist poet. When he began publishing poetry in the 1880 s, his poems had a lyrical, romantic style, and they focused on love, longing and loss, and Irish myths. His early writing follows the conventions of romantic verse, utilizing familiar rhyme schemes, metric patterns, and poetic structures. Although it is lighter than his later writings, his early poetry is still sophisticated and accomplished.

Irish Myth and Folklore • Yeats’s participation in the Irish political system had origins in his interest in Irish myth and folklore had been suppressed by church doctrine and British control of the school system. Yeats used his poetry as a tool for re-educating the Irish population about their heritage and as a strategy for developing Irish nationalism. He retold entire folktales in epic poems and plays, such as The Wanderings of Oisin (1889) and The Death of Cuchulain (1939), and used fragments of stories in shorter poems, such as “The Stolen Child” (1886), which retells a parable of fairies luring a child away from his home, and “Cuchulain’s Fight with the Sea” (1925), which recounts part of an epic where the Irish folk hero Cuchulain battles his long-lost son by at the edge of the sea. Other poems deal with subjects, images, and themes culled from folklore. In “Who Goes with Fergus? ” (1893) Yeats imagines a meeting with the exiled wandering king of Irish legend, while “The Song of Wandering Aengus” (1899) captures the experiences of the lovelorn god Aengus as he searches for the beautiful maiden seen in his dreams. • Most important, Yeats infused his poetry with a rich sense of Irish culture. Even poems that do not deal explicitly with subjects from myth retain powerful tinges of indigenous Irish culture. Yeats often borrowed word selection, verse form, and patterns of imagery directly from traditional Irish myth and folklore.

Key Question • How does Yeats demonstrate his early Romantic style and interest in Irish national identity through his poem ‘The Stolen Child’?

Critical Responses “dreamily lyrical nature of the earlier work, even as political dimensions of that work…should not be overlooked” Yeats’ poetry is about “challenging and complicating our understanding of what it means to be Irish” “Yeats adds trust in the mind’s capacity to tap into collective mythic or historical experiences” Yeats demonstrated “an admiration for the Celtic (all that is “unbounded” and “wild”) in literature and for his emphasis on its universality”

• https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=H_Z 02 M Y 7 mo 4&safe=active

The Central Metaphor • Poem is a metaphor for the return to innocence and childhood • Poem is a metaphor freedom from the politicised world of conflict and violence • Poem is a metaphor for a wild, unrestricted life free from social restraints • Poem is a metaphor for the loss of Celtic mythology and literature of the past

• Matthew Arnold – On the Study of Celtic Literature