Escapism is a prevalent theme in Yeats' poems; many allude to the disaffection of a character at odds with the events that transpire around him and who imagines a fantastic world of beauty in their place. "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," "Who Goes with Fergus?", "To an Isle in the Water," and "The Man Who Dreamed of Faeryland" all address or allude to a desire to detach. "The Madness of King Gall" is about a king of Ulster who commands the respect of his subjects, wins many battles, and yet slips into private reverie in their company and alone-- his solitary ramble and hallucination are described in the last three stanzas of the poem.

     "The Ballad of Moll Magee" is the lament of an indigent woman who rolls onto her child while she sleeps. Her escapism is not self-imposed or in any way indulgent; her husband sends her away-- she mutters to herself as she walks. It is intriguing when read with some knowledge of Yeats' own troubled mother, who suffered from a depression so severe that she would spend days in bed. Perhaps Yeats' own relationship with his mother could have contributed to his provocation of sympathy for this character. Taking this supposition into account, could we read the poem as a meditation on tolerance? Is it possible that, by giving us the life experience of a woman who might otherwise be dismissed, Yeats might generate sympathy for her? In the final stanza, Moll addresses the reader, "So now, ye little childer,/ Ye won't fling stones at me;/ But gather with your shinin'  looks/ And pity Moll Magee" (Yeats, 24).

     And could it be read as a plea for tolerance of our parents' shortcomings?