In_the_‘Stolen_Child’_How_Does_Yeats’_Present_Innocence_and_Corruption_

In the ‘Stolen Child’ how does Yeats’ present innocence and corruption' In Yeats’ poem ‘The Stolen Child’, he focuses on a child being led to the safety of nature and its purity, away from the ‘corrupt’ urban life. He gives the poem a childlike form which conveys the innocence, and rhyming structure which reinforces this virtuous sense which the youth holds. The language he uses is aimed very accurately to express either the magical aura which the island encompases or the negative bitter attitude Yeats has towards the cities and society at the time. ‘The Stolen Child’ presents innocence through it’s form, structure and effective use of language. Each stanza creates a steady, rhythmical structure through constant iambic tetrameter. This makes the poem very childlike and simple similar to a child's rhyme which not only conveys the innocence of spoken child but is also in simple form so that it would be accessible to more people. The poem’s structure is again very juvenile as the repeating chorus makes it sound like a nursery song. The lines in the stanzas are kept short and is very straightforward. The chorus is written in italics for originally it had been read aloud by a few people to create an echo effect, and it was also more sung than the rest. When a reader first reads it they immediately pick up that the last lines are meant to be said differently. A fairy is narrating the poem which sets the reader in the fantastical scene that the child is being allured to. Yeats believed that the world should be free and natural like this idyllic place he is describing which the fairy’s live in, and that the current cities and inhabited places were corrupted and constricted. Yeats often used gentle, idealistic phrases to describe the pureness of the untainted island. He uses alliteration to describe where there ‘lies a leafy island’ to emphasise the natures sense of lusciousness and abundance in life. The ‘flapping herons’ and ‘drowsy water-rats’ or ‘slumbering trout’ once again personify the animals to give them a sense of life which in turn sets up a story structure and creates more of a fairytale framework. Yeats goes on to describe the ‘faery vats’ which shows that this is a mystical scenario Yeats is creating. The reference to collecting ‘berries and of reddest stolen cherries’ which implies these creatures thrive on nature and depend only on the provide of the environment, again this creates a certain purity to their lifestyle. The only person they steal from is nature, this is such a genuine crime that is is excused, compared to the crimes Yeats would have seen in society. Yeats creates a caring and approachable image as he the moonlight to ‘wave’ we feel as if the moon in this kingdom is welcoming us. In the second stanza Yeats talks about the night in the island. Night can be considered a time of fear but also of calm and peace in the day. He reinforces this calm aura by created lines with many soft sounds like,’Far off by furthest Rosses’. The soft ‘f’ sound slows down the pace from the upbeat previous stanza and creates a sense of protection. Fairies come out and ‘Mingling hands and mingling glances’ start to dance. This image of unification and celebration by dancing contrasts the loneliness of urban life. The language Yeats uses to describe the fairies movements carefully portrays their childlike actions, they ‘leap’ and ‘chase’. Again Yeats uses soft alliteration to describe the ‘wandering water gushing’, the gentle sounds create a sense that the water in this place is not trapped but instead free and has a decisive direction. This contrasts the constricting city life and often indecisive and lost people. The ‘ferns that drop their tears’ show the cycle that the nature the island goes through. Nature works as one there and the elements rely on each other which opposes the city life where one often fights and lives of of himself. Images of comfort are created through Yeats language, and although this is a mention of the corrupt world the child still enjoys the harmless joys like; the ‘kettle on the hob’ or ‘calves on the warm hillside’. The language Yeats uses for the chorus is significant in connoting the corruption in the world the boy lives in. The fairies call to the child, pleading him to ‘Come away, O human child’ , an innocent tone is created and we feel the vulnerability of the pure soul which is being poisoned in the debauched world along with everyone else. The ‘waters and the wild’ which the fairy’s are luring the child to is wild and untainted by urbanisation, an idyllic paradise. We gain a sense that the child will be taken care with the utmost care and genuine love for he would be led ‘With a faery, hand in hand’. So through all the multiple techniques he builds up an firm image of the child and the island being innocent and pure, away from the cities. The ‘fantasy’ world Yeats creates sharply contrasts with the real world that surrounded him at the time, representing his exasperation with the real world. Yeats describes the supernatural paradise he has created, but then often makes stark contrasts to the reality of the world at the time. Whilst one line Yeats would describe the freedom and simplistic beauty of the ‘frothy bubbles’ the next line diverges and describes how ‘The world is full of troubles’ and they are ‘anxious in [their] sleep’. Although this retreat exists the world is suffering even at this time of peace and calm when one is meant to rest there is turbulence and discord in the world. By ending the stanza on a negative note he emphasises the contrast between the unspoiled land of the fairies and the depraved world he sets up a cycle of negativity and gloom. In the third stanza Yeats mentions a real place in the ‘hills above Glen-Car’, by giving the poem this tangible reality he grounds it and gives us hope that maybe there is a chance that the world could get better. There is still however a sinister undercut in the next stanza as the child is ‘Solemn-eyed’ this shows how the people have become tainted in the cities due to the correctness of society. He urges the child to escape from the dysfunctional home he is in. Although the first lines of the chorus are positive and light the last line which leaves the strongest impression on the reader is solemn and gloomy, for the world is ‘full of weeping’ because it has been ruined. The ‘you’ in the last line only changes to ‘he’ in the last stanza for before we feel Yeats is talking to everyone but in the last stanza he is directly addressing the child and makes the reader feel as if he has been saved from this ‘world full of weeping’. This line in the stanza is much more full than the others which exaggerates the idea that the world is filled with this corruptness. In conclusion Yeats incorporates the message of innocence and corruption into all the aspects of the poem from the form to the structure and the powerful use of language. He portrays the child as the innocence for children hold this sense as they have often not yet been tainted by society and so describes the world in which society lived in then to be the heart of the corruption and poison to the child.