Among School Children

One of the major themes in this poem is acceptance of old age and the beauty that can be found within it. Given our contemporary fixation on youth, this is a healthy theme to explore for any reader. The first stanza of “Among School Children” presents a contrast between the wide-eyed children and the smiling old man who’s come to visit them; neither is presented as superior to the other, simply pieces of a happy, healthy tableau.

In the fourth stanza, Yeats visits the image of the old woman his love has become, crone-like yet still with a renaissance beauty and strength. The speaker begins to mourn his lost youth, and then as if stopping an earlier version of himself, quickly discards the thought in favor of the present moment: “Better to smile on all that smile, and show / There is a comfortable kind of old scarecrow” (Lines 31-32). Here, the speaker wants to show the children that there is no fear or shame in old age. The moment presents an interesting contrast to Yeats’ earlier poem, “When You Are Old” (1893), where the speaker envisions a former love (also likely Maud Gonne), old and lonely by the fire, regretting their lost love.