The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Yeats, William Butler. “Among School Children.” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43293/among-school-children.

Note that all parenthetical citations refer to the line number from which the quotation is taken.

“Among School Children” was written at a later stage of Yeats’ career, when he was moving away from his more mythic- and folkloric-inspired early work to his more contemporary political work. At this time Yeats was Senator of the Irish Free State and used his literary platform to support his role in Irish politics. This poem was written in response to one of his school visits, and explores the contrast between the potential in the young faces and his own breadth of advanced experience.