William Butler Yeats published "Among School Children" in his famous 1928 collection of poems, The Tower. Yeats was in his 60s at the time and, like the speaker in this poem, served as an Irish senator whose responsibilities included inspecting public schools. In the poem, the speaker's visit to one such school prompts him to reflect on old age, youth, beauty, and change. Although old age brings a decline from the beauty and freshness of youth, the speaker comes to see life as a harmonious whole—meaning that every moment has its own pleasures and rewards.

• Read the full text of “Among School Children”

• “Among School Children” Summary

• “Among School Children” Themes

  • 

    Life as Continual Movement and Change

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-8
    • Lines 9-16
    • Lines 17-24
    • Lines 25-32
    • Lines 33-40
    • Lines 57-64
  • 

    Innocence vs. Experience

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-8
    • Lines 9-16
    • Lines 17-24
    • Lines 25-32
    • Lines 33-40
    • Lines 57-64
  • 

    Accepting the Reality of Aging and Decay

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 9-16
    • Lines 25-32
    • Lines 41-48
    • Lines 49-56
    • Lines 57-64

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Among School Children”

  • Before Line 1, Lines 1-6

    I ...
    ... best modern way—

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Lines 6-8

    the children's eyes ...
    ... smiling public man.

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Between Lines 8-9, Lines 9-12

    II ...
    ... day to tragedy—

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Lines 13-16

    Told, and it ...
    ... the one shell.

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Between Lines 16-17, Lines 17-21

    III ...
    ... every paddler's heritage—

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Lines 22-24

    And had that ...
    ... a living child.

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Between Lines 24-25, Lines 25-28

    IV ...
    ... for its meat?

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Lines 29-32

    And I though ...
    ... of old scarecrow.

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Between Lines 32-33, Lines 33-36

    V ...
    ... the drug decide,

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Lines 37-40

    Would think her ...
    ... his setting forth?

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Between Lines 40-41, Lines 41-44

    VI ...
    ... king of kings;

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Lines 45-48

    World-famous golden-thighed Pythagoras ...
    ... scare a bird.

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Between Lines 48-49, Lines 49-52

    VII ...
    ... a bronze repose.

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Lines 53-56

    And yet they ...
    ... of man's enterprise;

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Between Lines 56-57, Lines 57-60

    VIII ...
    ... of midnight oil.

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

  • Lines 61-64

    O chestnut tree, ...
    ... from the dance?

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• “Among School Children” Symbols

  • 

    The Dancer and the Dance

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 64: “How can we know the dancer from the dance?”

• “Among School Children” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “cipher,” “sing”
    • Line 4: “study”
    • Line 5: “sew”
    • Line 6: “modern”
    • Line 7: “momentary”
    • Line 8: “sixty,” “smiling”
    • Line 9: “body,” “bent”
    • Line 10: “tale”
    • Line 11: “Told,” “trivial”
    • Line 12: “tragedy”
    • Line 13: “Told”
    • Line 14: “sphere,” “sympathy”
    • Line 15: “Plato's,” “parable”
    • Line 16: “white,” “one”
    • Line 17: “thinking,” “that”
    • Line 19: “stood,” “so”
    • Line 20: “swan”
    • Line 21: “Something,” “heritage”
    • Line 22: “had,” “hair”
    • Line 26: “finger,” “fashion”
    • Line 28: “mess,” “meat”
    • Line 30: “pretty,” “plumage”
    • Line 31: “smile,” “smile”
    • Line 34: “Honey,” “had”
    • Line 35: “sleep,” “struggle”
    • Line 36: “drug,” “decide”
    • Line 37: “son,” “she,” “see,” “shape”
    • Line 38: “sixty”
    • Line 41: “Plato,” “plays”
    • Line 42: “paradigm”
    • Line 43: “played”
    • Line 44: “king,” “kings”
    • Line 46: “Fingered,” “fiddle,” “stick,” “strings”
    • Line 47: “star,” “sang”
    • Line 48: “Old,” “old,” “sticks,” “scare”
    • Line 49: “Both”
    • Line 50: “But”
    • Line 51: “mother's”
    • Line 52: “marble,” “bronze”
    • Line 53: “break,” “Presences”
    • Line 54: “passion,” “piety”
    • Line 56: “mockers,” “man's”
    • Line 57: “blossoming”
    • Line 58: “body,” “bruised”
    • Line 59: “beauty,” “born”
    • Line 60: “blear”
    • Line 61: “blossomer”
    • Line 62: “blossom,” “bole”
    • Line 63: “O,” “body,” “O,” “brightening”
    • Line 64: “dancer,” “dance”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “through,” “schoolroom”
    • Line 2: “kind,” “white,” “replies”
    • Line 3: “cipher,” “sing”
    • Line 4: “history”
    • Line 5: “be,” “neat,” “everything”
    • Line 9: “dream,” “Ledaean,” “body”
    • Line 12: “changed,” “day”
    • Line 20: “daughters,” “swan”
    • Line 22: “had,” “that,” “hair”
    • Line 23: “thereupon”
    • Line 31: “show”
    • Line 32: “old,” “scarecrow”
    • Line 33: “shape”
    • Line 34: “generation,” “betrayed”
    • Line 35: “sleep,” “shriek,” “escape”
    • Line 37: “she,” “see”
    • Line 38: “sixty”
    • Line 39: “compensation,” “pang”
    • Line 41: “Plato,” “nature,” “plays”
    • Line 43: “Solider,” “Aristotle,” “taws”
    • Line 44: “Upon,” “bottom”
    • Line 46: “Fingered,” “fiddle,” “stick,” “strings”
    • Line 48: “Old,” “clothes,” “old”
    • Line 49: “nuns,” “mothers”
    • Line 51: “reveries”
    • Line 52: “keep”
    • Line 53: “they,” “break”
    • Line 54: “That,” “passion”
    • Line 58: “body,” “not”
    • Line 60: “eyed,” “midnight”
    • Line 61: “tree”
    • Line 62: “leaf,” “blossom”
    • Line 63: “body,” “glance”
    • Line 64: “can,” “dancer,” “dance”

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “long,” “schoolroom,” “questioning”
    • Line 2: “kind,” “old,” “nun,” “in,” “replies”
    • Line 3: “children,” “learn,” “cipher,” “sing”
    • Line 4: “study,” “reading,” “books,” “history”
    • Line 7: “momentary,” “wonder,” “stare,” “upon”
    • Line 8: “smiling,” “man”
    • Line 9: “body,” “bent”
    • Line 10: “Above,” “tale”
    • Line 11: “Told,” “harsh,” “reproof,” “trivial”
    • Line 12: “changed,” “childish,” “day,” “tragedy”
    • Line 13: “Told,” “two,” “natures,” “blent”
    • Line 14: “Into,” “sphere,” “youthful,” “sympathy”
    • Line 15: “else,” “alter,” “Plato's,” “parable”
    • Line 16: “white,” “shell”
    • Line 17: “thinking,” “that,” “fit,” “grief,” “rage”
    • Line 18: “upon,” “one,” “t'other,” “there”
    • Line 19: “wonder,” “stood,” “so”
    • Line 20: “daughters,” “swan,” “can”
    • Line 21: “every,” “paddler's,” “heritage”
    • Line 22: “colour,” “cheek,” “hair”
    • Line 23: “thereupon,” “heart,” “driven”
    • Line 24: “living,” “child”
    • Line 25: “Her,” “present,” “image,” “mind”
    • Line 26: “finger,” “fashion”
    • Line 27: “cheek,” “drank”
    • Line 28: “took,” “mess,” “shadows,” “meat”
    • Line 29: “never,” “Ledaean,” “kind”
    • Line 30: “pretty,” “plumage,” “once,” “enough”
    • Line 31: “smile,” “all,” “smile”
    • Line 32: “comfortable,” “kind,” “scarecrow”
    • Line 33: “shape,” “upon,” “lap”
    • Line 34: “Honey,” “generation,” “betrayed”
    • Line 35: “must,” “sleep,” “shriek,” “struggle,” “escape”
    • Line 36: “recollection,” “drug,” “decide”
    • Line 37: “son,” “she,” “see,” “shape”
    • Line 38: “With,” “more,” “winters”
    • Line 39: “compensation,” “pang”
    • Line 40: “uncertainty,” “setting”
    • Line 41: “Plato,” “spume,” “plays”
    • Line 42: “Upon,” “paradigm”
    • Line 43: “Solider,” “Aristotle,” “played”
    • Line 44: “Upon”
    • Line 45: “World,” “golden,” “thighed,” “Pythagoras”
    • Line 46: “Fingered,” “upon,” “fiddle,” “stick,” “strings”
    • Line 47: “star,” “sang,” “careless,” “Muses,” “heard”
    • Line 48: “Old,” “clothes,” “old,” “sticks,” “scare,” “bird”
    • Line 49: “mothers,” “worship,” “images”
    • Line 50: “candles,” “light,” “not,” “those”
    • Line 51: “That,” “animate,” “mother's,” “reveries”
    • Line 52: “marble,” “bronze,” “repose”
    • Line 53: “break,” “hearts,” “Presences”
    • Line 54: “passion,” “piety”
    • Line 55: “all,” “heavenly,” “glory,” “symbolise”
    • Line 56: “born,” “mockers,” “man's,” “enterprise”
    • Line 57: “Labour,” “blossoming,” “dancing”
    • Line 58: “body,” “bruised,” “pleasure,” “soul”
    • Line 59: “beauty,” “born,” “despair”
    • Line 60: “blear,” “wisdom,” “midnight”
    • Line 61: “tree,” “great,” “rooted,” “blossomer”
    • Line 62: “leaf,” “blossom,” “bole”
    • Line 63: “body,” “brightening,” “glance”
    • Line 64: “can,” “know,” “dancer,” “dance”

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

    Where allusion appears in the poem:

    • Line 9: “Ledaean body”
    • Lines 13-15: “it seemed that our two natures blent / Into a sphere from youthful sympathy, / Or else, to alter Plato's parable,”
    • Line 20: “ daughters of the swan”
    • Line 26: “Quattrocento”
    • Line 29: “Ledaean kind”
    • Line 34: “Honey of generation”
    • Lines 41-48: “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.”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Lines 13-16: “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.”
    • Lines 29-30: “And I though never of Ledaean kind / Had pretty plumage once”
    • Lines 31-32: “and show / There is a comfortable kind of old scarecrow.”
    • Lines 41-42: “Plato thought nature but a spume that plays / Upon a ghostly paradigm of things;”
    • Line 48: “Old clothes upon old sticks to scare a bird.”
    • Lines 57-58: “Labour is blossoming or dancing where / The body is not bruised to pleasure soul,”
    • Lines 61-64: “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?”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Lines 27-28: “Hollow of cheek as though it drank the wind / And took a mess of shadows for its meat?”
    • Lines 49-51: “images, / But those the candles light are not as those / That animate a mother's reveries,”

  • Rhetorical Question

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

    Where rhetorical question appears in the poem:

    • Lines 26-28: “Did Quattrocento finger fashion it / Hollow of cheek as though it drank the wind / And took a mess of shadows for its meat?”
    • Lines 33-40: “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?”
    • Lines 61-64: “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?”

  • Polyptoton

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

    Where polyptoton appears in the poem:

    • Line 31: “smile,” “smile”
    • Line 41: “plays”
    • Line 43: “played”
    • Line 57: “dancing”
    • Line 64: “dancer,” “dance”

  • Metonymy

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

    Where metonymy appears in the poem:

    • Line 26: “Quattrocento finger”
    • Line 38: “With sixty or more winters on its head”
    • Line 60: “midnight oil”

  • Apostrophe

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

    Where apostrophe appears in the poem:

    • Lines 53-56: “O Presences / That passion, piety or affection knows, / And that all heavenly glory symbolise— / O self-born mockers of man's enterprise;”
    • Lines 61-64: “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?”

  • Hypotaxis

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

    Where hypotaxis appears in the poem:

    • Lines 9-16: “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.”
    • Lines 17-24: “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.”
    • Lines 33-40: “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?”

  • Parallelism

    

    

    

    

    Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

    Where parallelism appears in the poem:

    • Lines 41-46: “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”
    • Lines 59-60: “Nor beauty born out of its own despair, / Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.”
    • Lines 61-64: “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?”

• “Among School Children” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Cipher
  • Reading-books
  • Public man
  • Ledaean body
  • Reproof
  • Natures
  • Sympathy
  • Plato's parable
  • Plato
  • Shell
  • Fit
  • T'other
  • Daughters of the Swan
  • Paddler's
  • Quattrocento
  • Mess
  • Plumage
  • Honey of generation
  • Drug
  • Pang
  • Setting forth
  • Spume
  • Paradigm
  • Solider
  • The taws
  • Golden-thighed Pythagoras
  • Fiddle-stick or strings
  • Muses
  • Reveries
  • Repose
  • Presences
  • Piety
  • Self-born
  • Blear-eyed
  • Midnight oil
  • Bole