To a Child Dancing in the Wind

To a Child Dancing in the Wind - fact Summary

Included in the Wild Swans

This short lyric, printed in The Wild Swans at Coole, contrasts a carefree child dancing by the shore with the burdens and losses that come with adulthood. The speaker addresses the child’s immunity to grief, love’s reversals, and the heavy work of life. The poem frames youthful spontaneity against later sorrow, using seaside imagery to underline the difference between momentary joy and accumulated human loss.