Arrange the following poems by W. B. Yeats in the chronological order of their year of publication:

A. “Adam’s Curse”
B. “Among School Children”
C. “The Second Coming”
D. “The Wild Swans at Coole”
E. “Under Ben Bulben”

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Correct option is D

Explanation:

The correct chronological sequence of the poems by W. B. Yeats is:

A. “Adam’s Curse” (1903)
D. “The Wild Swans at Coole” (1917)
C. “The Second Coming” (1919)
B. “Among School Children” (1927)
E. “Under Ben Bulben” (1938)

This order reflects Yeats’s poetic evolution — from lyrical romanticism to philosophical and modernist concerns about history, aging, identity, and mortality.

Information Booster:

“Adam’s Curse” (1903):

- A pre-modernist lyrical poem that laments the effort involved in artistic creation.

- The poet asserts that poetry, love, and beauty require labor just as manual work does.

- The poem is infused with a tone of melancholy and personal reflection.

“The Wild Swans at Coole” (1917):

- A meditative poem that contrasts the changeless beauty of nature (swans) with the poet’s own sense of aging and loss.

- Themes include nostalgia, time, and transformation.

“The Second Coming” (1919):

- A hallmark of modernist poetry, known for its apocalyptic imagery and philosophical depth.

- Yeats uses his theory of gyres (cyclical history) to predict the collapse of the current era and the rise of a new, frightening age.

“Among School Children” (1927):

- A symbolic and philosophical poem, where Yeats visits a classroom and reflects on the transience of youth, idealism, and the fusion of life and art.

- Ends with the famous line: “How can we know the dancer from the dance?”

“Under Ben Bulben” (1938):

- One of Yeats’s last poems, serving as a poetic farewell and a nationalistic manifesto.

- The poem combines myth, art, and identity, and concludes with his own epitaph lines.