The Stolen Child

· A metaphor for the return to innocence, which is characterised by childhood

· Yeats desired to write poetry of ‘longing and complaint’ – not story of being taken from the ‘real’ world but escape to faeryland

· The dichotomy (contrast) of a ‘fantasy’ world and the world of reality

o Represents dissatisfaction with the real world

o Nationalism/Irish concerns – link to ‘The Fisherman’/’September 1913’ – dissatisfaction with contemporary Ireland and the values of the people in comparison to the ideals and values of the Romantic nationalists and the nationalist heroes

o‘wandering water gushes’ – images of freedom of the faeryland/Ireland?

o ‘the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand’, ‘To and fro we leap / And chase the frothy bubbles, While the world is full of troubles / And is anxious in its sleep’ – contrast between the real world and the faeryland

o The change in the final refrain makes it almost accusatory, 2nd person used to emphasise innocence/obliviousness of the child. ‘a world more full of weeping than he can understand.’

· The comparison of natural/romantic Ireland and the faeryland

o Not quite sure which he is talking about at points

o‘Where dips the rocky highland / Of Sleuth Wood in the lake’, ‘leafy…