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beguiling a child? is the beguiling well intended? Or ill-purposed?

 
 
Reply Sun 22 Dec, 2013 07:43 pm

Context:

The poem was written in 1886 and is considered to be one of Yeats's more notable early poems. The poem is based on Irish legend and concerns faeries beguiling a child to come away with them. Yeats had a great interest in Irish mythology about faeries resulting in his publication of Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry in 1888 and Fairy Folk Tales of Ireland in 1892.

The poem reflects the early influence of Romantic literature and Pre-Raphaelite verse.


Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berries
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand.
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.
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Jack of Hearts
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Reply Sun 22 Dec, 2013 10:11 pm
@oristarA,

Beguiling, or using guile, is mostly perceived with having a negative connotation. So, it probably is ill-purposed and not well-intended. This poem, we're told, is of "beguiling a child", despite the intent of the faeries to lead the child away from a world "more full of weeping than you can understand".
At the time this poem was written, faeries in Ireland were looked upon as being malicious. But other old legends told how they were known as being helpful in leading, those they thought of as worthy, to and from places in the Otherworld, such as Avalon. Just maybe, this poem could have been the genesis of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys - where faery dust help children fly to a Neverland.

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Miss L Toad
 
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Reply Sun 22 Dec, 2013 10:33 pm
@oristarA,
Where is our esteemed colleague WBYeats at.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stolen_Child

[url][DOC]
The Poetry of WB Yeats Notes and Study Questions - Central[/url]
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Ceili
 
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Reply Mon 23 Dec, 2013 12:27 am
@oristarA,
It's well known that the faeries steal children in Ireland and in other northern European culture. Fairy children are said to cry a lot, so the fairy parents or royalty will take a human baby or trick a toddler into following them and then leave a changeling (a fairy baby) in their place. Mother knew something was wrong when junior started to cry.
Perhaps the idea for Pan came from the Faeries, but not the other way round. This stuff is older than the hills. Superstitious minds.
There are all kinds of rituals done to appease the faeries to this day in Ireland.
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