Nathanael Hahn

W. B. Yeats’ poem, “To a Child Dancing in the Wind,” (or “To a Child Dancing on the Shore”) contrasts the ocean of worries and cares in life with the beach of the carefree happiness of childhood. Spoken by someone wise and worn with age, it laments the difficulty to reveal the sadness and darkness in the world to one so seemingly innocent. On the one hand, Yeats wants to prolong the happiness of youth, but implies that the happiness found there is only a naive shadow of understanding, and therefore, perhaps not real happiness at all.

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The intent in setting this text to music is to communicate the Ecclesiastes “all is vanity” idea starkly portrayed in the text. Yeats is correct—insofar as one is apart from Christ. One can feel in the text the despair of life someone without Christ can have, and that is what this setting aims to express.

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This setting uses six voices to achieve an overwhelming musical texture, which moves in ever-intensifying waves as the text piles on more burdens of life. The dancing motif present throughout illustrates the innocent child oblivious to the evils around her. There is also a Lydian tint used to exaggerate the empty feeling the poet communicates.