“The Stolen Child”\u00a0by W.B. Yeats<\/p>\n
Where dips the rocky highland
\nOf Sleuth Wood in the lake,
\nThere lies a leafy island
\nWhere flapping herons wake
\nThe drowsy water rats;
\nThere we’ve hid our faery vats,
\nFull of berrys
\nAnd of reddest stolen cherries.
\nCome away, O human child!
\nTo the waters and the wild
\nWith a faery, hand in hand.
\nFor the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.<\/p>\n
Where the wave of moonlight glosses
\nThe dim gray sands with light,
\nFar off by furthest Rosses
\nWe foot it all the night,
\nWeaving olden dances
\nMingling hands and mingling glances
\nTill the moon has taken flight;
\nTo and fro we leap
\nAnd chase the frothy bubbles,
\nWhile the world is full of troubles
\nAnd anxious in its sleep.
\nCome away, O human child!
\nTo the waters and the wild
\nWith a faery, hand in hand,
\nFor the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.<\/p>\n
Where the wandering water gushes
\nFrom the hills above Glen-Car,
\nIn pools among the rushes
\nThat scarce could bathe a star,
\nWe seek for slumbering trout
\nAnd whispering in their ears
\nGive them unquiet dreams;
\nLeaning softly out
\nFrom ferns that drop their tears
\nOver the young streams.
\nCome away, O human child!
\nTo the waters and the wild
\nWith a faery, hand in hand,
\nFor the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.<\/p>\n
Away with us he’s going,
\nThe solemn-eyed –
\nHe’ll hear no more the lowing
\nOf the calves on the warm hillside
\nOr the kettle on the hob
\nSing peace into his breast,
\nOr see the brown mice bob
\nRound and round the oatmeal chest
\nFor he comes the human child
\nTo the waters and the wild
\nWith a faery, hand in hand
\nFrom a world more full of weeping than he can understand<\/p>\n
In the poem The Stolen Child, Yeats tells of the enticing of a human child to join the fairies. The child is not actually stolen, but is seduced away . The fairies enchant him with tales of their world, and the child forgets his family and his life and goes with them. The human world, they tell him, is full of weeping, but only magic and adventure exists in theirs.<\/p>\n
The describe the pleasures he will have, of magical journeys to towns and lakes and beaches. Then they take him to a waterfall,\u00a0not to catch trout but to tease them, whispering to them from the branches of ferns that arch out over the water. Perhaps the child drowns here or the stream carries him off. But that is open to your interpretation.<\/p>\n
In any case, they persuade him to come away with them, away from the warmth and comforts of humans, to join the faeries. His mother will weep for him, but he is far too young to understand what he has lost.<\/p>\n
“Dragonfly Chaser” by\u00a0Chiyo-ni<\/p>\n
I wonder in what field today
\nHe chases dragonflies in play
\nMy little boy, who ran away.
\n\u2014 \u00a0a popular translation<\/p>\n
“The Dragonfly Chaser” \u2014 a haiku by Chiyo (and yes, I’d be willing to bet that’s where Kishimoto drew his inspiration for his Chiyo), one of Japan’s best known female haiku poets. It is written from the pov of the mother, wondering where her child has gotten off too. It reflects that heartbreaking moment where, in the stillness of a home after the loss of her son, the mother wonders, as she is so used to doing, where the little boy has gotten off to. In the very next instant, after the poem’s end, she realizes he’s gone. (Sort of like waking from a dream and not knowing for a fraction-of-a-second which is real – the dream life or the real life. ) So, in a single poem it ties together both instances, both realities: For that moment, he was still alive to her, and just off playing in another field. At the same time the lines affirm that yes, he is still chasing dragonflies, but it is another place where she cannot go. I thought this was appropriate for this chapter because this is the little window into Naruto’s life before he leaves the village. He doesn’t die, but he will never be that same child again. And the playful, sweet boy will never grow up in those fields, but will move on to run and play in other ones.<\/p>\n
“The Stolen Child”\u00a0by W.B. Yeats 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 berrys And of reddest stolen cherries. Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chapter-notes","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5hctF-c7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3187,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions\/3187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirlingpetals.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}