“Among school children”

I walk through the long schoolroom questioning;

A kind old nun in a white hood replies;
The children learn to cipher and to sing,
To study reading-books and history,
To cut and sew, be neat in everything
In the best modern way—the children's eyes
In momentary wonder stare upon
A sixty-year-old smiling public man.

The first stanza is about the visit of the poet in 1926 to the Convent School at Waterford at the age
of sixty. The school was run by the nuns on the Montessori Method of teaching. During the visit,
the poet records his private thoughts. In school, he asks questions from a nun and observing the
intellectuality of students. Although the poet is old he proves himself young and keeps aware of
the age difference. He finds most of the students between the age of four to seven and they are
busy in solving arithmetic. The girls are surprised by looking at an old person with a smiley face.

I dream of a Ledaean body, bent

Above a sinking fire, a tale that she
Told of a harsh reproof, or trivial event
That changed some childish day to tragedy—
Told, and it seemed that our two natures blent
Into a sphere from youthful sympathy,
Or else, to alter Plato's parable,
Into the yolk and white of the one shell.

In the second stanza, the poet was dreaming of his lover Maud Gonne. She was as beautiful as
Helen in her youth, for whom a ten-year War, Trojan War was fought, which is the theme
of Homer’s epic Iliad. Gonne was a beautiful young woman with a body like Leda (who was raped
by Zeus in the form of a swan). Basically, the poet remembered his past days and the chats he
has with her in his youth. Visiting classes, he was thinking about Gonne, that someone has a
resemblance to her or not. He remembered an accident in school. He sympathized and his two
natures get together. He showed that he and she now become a single body and united. Basically,
this is the speaker's fantasy, wishing to unite (in sensuality) with his first love, to become a
complete human. There is a reference to myth as well in this poem.

And thinking of that fit of grief or rage

I look upon one child or t'other there
And wonder if she stood so at that age—
For even daughters of the swan can share
Something of every paddler's heritage—
And had that colour upon cheek or hair,
And thereupon my heart is driven wild:
She stands before me as a living child.

The poet in this stanza draws an analogy between his lover (Maud Gonne) and the children at the
convent school. He further compares the beauty of her lover with the “daughters of the swan” and
then concludes the Stanza by declaring how she has affected his heart. Firstly, the poet connects
the previous stanza with a stanza by saying how the memories of his love for Maud Gonne only
create grief as they are not together anymore: “And thinking of that fit of grief or rage”. Though the
memories of his lover only bring grief to him his love for Maud Gonne was never forgotten. He then
comes back to reality and observes the children at the convent school. He ponders whether Maud
Gonne was like any other girls he saw at the convent school. Secondly, he again wonders that
does his lover shares a common heritage with the “daughters of Swan” which is a reference given
to the Helen of Troy. He then declares that the beauty of his lover, her hair, and her cheek often
make his heart go wild. He imagines her to be standing right in front of him.

Her present image floats into the mind—

Did Quattrocento finger fashion it
Hollow of cheek as though it drank the wind
And took a mess of shadows for its meat?
And I though never of Ledaean kind
Had pretty plumage once—enough of that,
Better to smile on all that smile, and show
There is a comfortable kind of old scarecrow.

The poet after imagining his lover as a young girl now imagines her to be the same age that he is.
He wonders if her beauty was made or captured by any Italian artist belonging from the 1400s the
“Quattrocento” period. This period in Italy was marked by the start of the Renaissance movement.
He appreciates her beauty and her hollow cheeks. According to the poet, his lover even in the old
age with hollow cheeks is beautiful and mesmerizing like Leda. He again gives an allusion to Leda
who was raped by Zeus and was an epitome of beauty and was used as an inspiration or a muse
in the Renaissance period. He appreciates the beauty of Leda. He presents imagery of a swan
ornamented by colorful feathers to depict the beauty of his lover. The last two lines can be
interpreted in two different ways. The first interpretation revolves around the initial stance of the
poet regarding the beauty of his lover and aging. According to the poet even in old age, one must
smile as the smile is a representation of tranquility. The second interpretation presents the notion
that the poet is brought into reality after thinking about his lover and realizes that he is at a convent
school so he must put on a face with a more suitable smile.

What youthful mother, a shape upon her lap

Honey of generation had betrayed,
And that must sleep, shriek, struggle to escape
As recollection or the drug decide,
Would think her son, did she but see that shape
With sixty or more winters on its head,
A compensation for the pang of his birth,
Or the uncertainty of his setting forth?

The poet now incorporates another significant image of her mother. He explains the hardships a
mother faces during pregnancy and questions are this shrunken sleep, the shrieks, and struggles
worth the life of their child. An allusion to “Honey of a generation” is given. This image is taken
from the essay “The Cave of the Nymphs”. The main idea behind this image is how the memories
of a woman before their prenatal life are forgotten. He presents this notion by pointing out how the
lives of the mothers after the birth of their child only revolve around their child. The mothers
become oblivious of their previous lives, their likes, and dislikes. They forget their selves and only
remember their duty as a mother. He questions this loving and selfless nature of the mothers by
saying that is the pain of labor a mother faces for her child paid off if the child lives till, he is sixty or
more. He questions were the pain his mother suffered during childbirth with his existence on this
planet for sixty years. Lastly, he questions what does a mother get after suffering from all this
pain? How can she be compensated?

Plato thought nature but a spume that plays

Upon a ghostly paradigm of things;
Solider Aristotle played the taws
Upon the bottom of a king of kings;
World-famous golden-thighed Pythagoras
Fingered upon a fiddle-stick or strings
What a star sang and careless Muses heard:
Old clothes upon old sticks to scare a bird.

The poet in the last stanza presents three different schools of thought and makes fun of them by
declaring that even the great philosophers were unable to hinder the process of aging. Firstly, he
mentions Plato who being an idealist viewed the world from his lens of idealism. Plato’s
metaphysical theory of forms and his “ghostly paradigm of things” according to the poet was the
major contribution to his philosophy. Secondly, he mentions Aristotle who was a practically-minded
man and the teachers of Alexander the Great. Thirdly, he mentions Pythagoras who was a “World-
famous golden-thighed”; a well-known Greek philosopher of mathematics, music, and
metaphysics. The poet explains how each of them had a perspective and philosophy of their own.
Their philosophies were even sung in the stars which the muses heard. But he explains that these
philosophies too grew old and now are used to scare bird.

Both nuns and mothers worship images,

But those the candles light are not as those
That animate a mother's reveries,
But keep a marble or a bronze repose.
And yet they too break hearts—O Presences
That passion, piety or affection knows,
And that all heavenly glory symbolise—
O self-born mockers of man's enterprise;

The poet in this stanza firstly presents an analogy between nuns and mothers. He describes how
both worship images. A nun worships the images of the deities whereas a mother worships the
images of her child. A nun worships in a church by lighting candles to attain tranquility and
perfection but for a mother, the memories of her child are an embodiment of perfection. The poet
distinguishes between the love of a mother which is an earthly love and the love of a nun which
invokes “a marble or a bronze repose”. The poet presents the notion that love whether religious or
earthly brings disappointment: “And yet they too break hearts”. A mother is often disappointed with
her child because of his physical growth and the changes which are observed in his behavior and
he thus becomes a reason for her grief. Similarly, a nun often faces disappointment due to her
believes and the never-changing nature of the stone. The poet concludes this idea by declaring
that both the nuns and the mothers worship their own set of images but these images are mere
illusions that bring disappointment. Secondly, he points out three different emotions such as
passion, piety, and affection and associates them with his lover (Maud Gonne), the nuns, and the
mothers respectively. One can interpret that he is doing so points at the greatness in women who
know all of these emotions and are symbolic of heavenly glory. Lastly, he concludes his idea and
presents the notion that how women are self-born mockers of man: “O self-born mockers of man's
enterprise” as they can give birth to themselves which man cannot do.

Labour is blossoming or dancing where

The body is not bruised to pleasure soul,
Nor beauty born out of its own despair,
Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.
O chestnut tree, great rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?

In the last stanza of the poem, the poet presents the notion that opposites produce vitality. They
are the reason for the blossoming of a soul. Firstly, he presents this notion by pointing out how a
human reproduces. A human being is reproduced by the means of sexual reproduction which
involves both sexes male and female. A human being is a result of intercourse between two
opposites and after a hard labor of bearing that fetus, a soul blossoms. Similarly, a chestnut tree
does not only bear a leaf or a flower or a trunk rather it consists of these three in harmony. The
existence of these three in harmony makes a chestnut tree a “great rooted blossomed”. Beauty
and perfection are not born in isolation rather they exist because of the harmony present in nature.
Lastly, he validates his point by questioning: “How can we know the dancer from the dance?”. Just
like a dance that cannot be separated from the body dancing, similarly, human life cannot be
oblivious of sadness and ecstasy rather they exist in harmony.