Yeats at the High School

Abstract

Yeats in the High School was a kind of super-boy, who enjoyed an enviable immunity from the various ignominies of school-discipline. After days of absence, he would suddenly slide into his seat—beside me as it happened for some time—and apply himself diligently to his work; I remember him chiefly in the mathematical class, and his quick reply ‘Oh, yes!’ to my incredulous enquiry whether he actually liked geometry and algebra. His privileged standing among the boys was due, no doubt, to some arrangement with his father, who had applied certain educational principles to his children’s upbringing, of which spontaneous development was the essential; and Yeats was really an unusually well-read young man of about 19, with a conscious literary ambition. Some knowledge of classics and ‘grammar’ were graces to be added, and there was a singular charm in his deference to those who in these respects were better equipped than himself.

Erasmian (Dublin) XXX (June 1939) 11–12.