To A Child Dancing in the Wind

Dance there upon the shore;

What need have you to care
For wind or water's roar?
And tumble out your hair
That the salt drops have wet;
Being young you have not known
The fool's triumph, nor yet
Love lost as soon as won,
Nor the best labourer dead
And all the sheaves to bind.
What need have you to dread
The monstrous crying of wind?
W.B Yeats

The child is dancing on the shore and there is something happy and
delightful in the vision of a child carefree and unaware, dancing and
skipping along the seashore. The sea is rough and is crashing on the
shoreline. To a child, it is exciting, even exhilarating. She does not
sense the danger, feel its threat. The waves moving towards the child
symbolizes the harshness of the world foe the young and the
innocent.

The poet urges her to dance, to tumble out her hair, to embrace the
moment. She should cherish her freedom and ignore the ominous
sound of the wind and the water. Later on she can fret about the
cares of the world.

Wrapped in her cocoon, she does not yet know about the heartbreak
of the world, and where often the foolish, the vulgar, the ignorant
triumph over and brutalize the sensitive, the artistic, the scholarly.
Being young, you have not known the fools triumph or she has not
experienced yet the searing pain of unrequited love, which renders
life futile and meaningless. Or the horrible unfairness of it all. Nor the
best labourer dead and all the sheaves to bind.

Very often it is the very best, the ones with the most potential who
are taken away before they have a chance to exploit their talent.
People like his friend JM Synge who dies in the prime of his life when
he had so much to offer.

As the poet observes the young girl, he rejoices at her happiness and
her innocence, but is fearful at what might happen in the years to
come. The world is in many ways a valley of tears, the monstrous
crying of the wind but she has no need to dread it yet. So he tells her
to let her hair down and enjoy her youth. The howling wind and the
angry waves and the vicissitudes of life (ups and downs) cannot
touch her yet.

Themes and Features

Childhood

Innocence

Love (tenderness)

Protectiveness

Symbolism and imagery

Depression

Heartache/Pain

Nature

Injustice

Contrast (innocence/ugliness of the world, child/adult)

 The Music of the Poem
Tone of Voice:

 Quiet, soothing, pleasant

 Grows more uneasy, disturbed, discordant
 Finishes up full of fear, apprehension, dread.

Rhythm:

 Slow, steady, sad and haunting

Rhyme:

 A bab. There is a strong rhyming scheme that adds up to the

melody of the poem.

All iteration:

 Sibilant “s” sounds

 liquid “l” sounds (used for poignant moments “Love lost as
soon as won”)
 Melodious “m” sounds
 All of the above are mellifluous sounds
 Sensuous/sonorous sounds

Opposite:

 Sombre, harsher, cacophonous(grating to the ear) letter “G”

“B” “R” = garring and abrasive sounds.

 Sometimes music can be mournful like a lament, doleful.

Repetition:

 Adds to the musical textures of the poem.

“What need have you to care, what need have you to dream”
 Assonance (vowel sounds):
 a-Broad
 i & e-Slender
 o & u-long
 one of the saddest words in the English language is Forlorn