W. B. Yeats’ “Among School Children” was the result of the poet’s visit to anelementary school. Apparently, it seems to be the record of his visit and his imaginingMaud Gonne’s life and his life. When it is closely examined, it is proved to containhis philosophical thoughts regarding the reality and actuality.
As is well known, Yeats lost his interest in Christianity early in his childhood andstudied the mysticism, the esotericism, the occultism, and the Orientalism including theold Indian philosophy and Buddhism from childhood to adulthood. Sometimes hestudied the various pagan philosophy systematically and sometimes unsystematically. It isnatural that his poetry shows the reflection of his philosophy as his poetic aim was toput himself into the poetry.
This paper proves the influence of Buddhism on his poem, “Among SchoolChildren”. The first chapter deals with the background of this poem’s making andsurveys the contents of this poem. The second chapter summarizes his study ofMysticism and the Indic philosophy focussing on Buddhism. This chapter also explicatethe main ideas of Buddhism; the Great Wheel, the emptiness, non-self-being,metempsychosis, the Law of Karma, etc.
The third chapter examines the poem “Among School Children” in the light ofBuddhism. First the poem is proved to be based on the idea of the Great Wheel. Thespeaker and the persons who are imagined by the poet are chained to the Wheel andcannot escape from it. They have to be reincarnated according to the law of Karma,that is they are suffering the metempsychosis. The law of Karma emphasizesrelativity/relatedness among objects. The people named and/or appeared in this poem arerelated to each other, and have no self-being.
The fourth chapter discusses the poem’s development from dualism to monism.Western philosophy is basically based on dualism but Buddhism is monism. We canconclude that Yeats’ thoughts on the actuality and the reality are based on monism in this poem. But his acceptance of Buddhism was not literally, but he adopted andchanged it to his purpose. His “Unity of Being” is originated from Buddhism but is notthe same as that of Buddhism. He insists that the real life should be valued when thespirit and the body come to be united. In Buddhism, all the actuality is emptinessitself, but Yeats affirms the actuality. In Buddhism, reincarnation and/or re-living istaking different body from the former body, but Yeats thinks we are reincarnated orre-live by feeling and accepting other people’s selves. These are main points ofdifference between Buddhism and Yeats.