Preview

The Fisherman

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
865 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Fisherman
In the poem ‘The Fisherman’ W.B Yeats presents his frustrations on how the Irish people have become, materialistic, greedy and one-dimensional, and how Ireland was full of creativity and culture, but is now being polluted by the lack of attention towards the art and creativity, leading towards this damaged Irish society.

Yeats begins by using a symbolic image of a fisherman, and writes the poem for his own personal ideal audience. He opens the poem using a first person narrative, mixed with a simple monosyllabic dialogue “Although I can see him still”, in order to emphasise the simplistic nature of the fisherman, and Yeats adds to this effect by using a very regular rhyming pattern (ABAB), and enjambment of the line in order to add a harmony and fluidity to the poem.

As you carry on Yeats describes a lot of rural and naturalistic imagery “the freckled man”…grey Connemara clothes” emphasising the typical old simple, and hard working Irish man, and this could in fact be compared to the ‘Irish Airman’. Because both poems are connected to a specific place in Ireland, in ‘The Fisherman’, it is Connemara, when in the ‘Irish Airman’ it is “Kiltarton Cross”, also in ‘The Fisherman’, notice how the man seems to form as part of the landscape “grey place on a hill in grey”, which shows how, not only is he wearing Connemara clothes, a local material, but seems to merge with the natural environment.

Yeats also uses a variety of different syntax’s, in order to present the Irish people, and to present their different attitudes. From the simple syntax of the fisherman, “cast his flies “reflecting the quite, simple aspects of Ireland to where people live off the land, to which in Yeats’ eyes is the perfect audience for him to write to. However the complex syntax “craven man” which is used, reflects the confusion almost, on how Yeats is travelling from his ideal reality, then arriving upon the actual reality, to which he detests.

From lines eight to twenty-five, it shows

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    “Last Look” is no exception to the recurring theme of referring to local Irish people that is evident in much of Heaney’s poetry. Heaney talks about the…

    • 1522 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Neurophysiology Study Guide

    • 2945 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Define "electrogenic" and "neutral” pumps. What role does the Na-K pump play in the resting potential?…

    • 2945 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The timeless essence and the ambivalence in Yeats’ poems urge the reader’s response to relevant themes in society today. This enduring power of Yeats’ poetry, influenced by the Mystic and pagan influences is embedded within the textual integrity drawn from poetic techniques and structure when discussing relevant contextual concerns.…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Easter 1916 not only gives insight into the obvious physical conflicts between individuals but also focuses on the inner conflicts of the rebels, and further Yeats’ own underlying inner conflicts. One of the main representations of inner conflict throughout the poem is Yeats’ inner conflict concerning the rebels, particularly MacBride, and the worth of the rebellion in itself. In the second stanza Yeats talks of MacBride as a “drunken, vainglorious lout” however soon after comments “Yet I number him in song”. This paradox expresses Yeats’ inner turmoil between his personal opinions of the man, verse his acknowledgment of his patriotic and heroic actions for Ireland. However, by not directly naming MacBride in this stanza the ambiguity of the turmoil remains, allowing audiences to relate to such inner conflict despite their unique contexts. Similarly to Easter 1916, The Second Coming ambiguously explores Yeats’ inner conflicts allowing audiences to connect the poem to the basic components of every human life. Yeats’ inner conflict over the concepts of time and eventual change pervades throughout The Second Coming. The first stanza reveals Yeats’ disdain with current…

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Yeat’s pursuit to retain permanence for age and love, and the cultural impacts of the Irish revolution around him are the universal tensions and desires reflected in his poetry. “The Wild Swan’s at Coole” and “Easter 1916” unifies the understanding of life complexities and also its contradictions; the “beauty” of life, yet still the cruel existence of suffering. Yeat’s poetry, intends to release emotions beyond earthly bounds and provides insight of relating as a human being, and ultimately leaving behind a legacy, his art, to underpin the importance of desire.…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Leda and the Swan

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Each section begins with a bold phrase that summarizes the event. ‘A sudden blow' initiates the octave and ‘a shudder in the loins' the sestet. The octave is written in the present tense. The first three lines of the sestet look to the future, ‘Agamemnon dead'. The last three lines look back on the violent encounter. The two-part structure is repeated again in the grammatical construction. Each half contains two sentences, each a complete stanza. The first and third sentences are declarations, the second and fourth are interrogations. Yeats uses the alternating statements and questions to lead the reader to alternate identifying with the swan during the affirmative sentences and Leda in the interrogative ones.…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After Yeats’ dreams come the memories of the woman. In three of the five stanzas Yeats repeats the words ‘Vague memories, nothing but memories.’ Yeats’ actual memories of her have faded as he got older, another result of time and ageing. Yeats can only remember a small amount about her, a large amount of that being her looks and beauty, he has been dreaming about that one thing for so long that he has forgotten everything else about her. It is suggested that even the memories that he still has become blurred and they are not as they actually were. In the fourth stanza she enters a lake with one small imperfection that makes her stand out, but if she were to leave the lake it is implied that this imperfection will disappear and she will be utterly perfect. That imperfection is the one of her characteristics that makes her so appealing to Yeats and so even more memorable, if that were to go then perhaps he will forget her altogether.…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Yeats

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages

    William Butler Yeats’ poetry possesses strong imagery and themes of stability and change. Two of the poems, which especially highlight these elements, are The Second Coming and The Wild Swans At Coole. Within both of these poems the recurring imagery conjures creates strong elements of stability and change.…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The New Apartment

    • 2077 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Linda Hogan captures the essence of a bigger picture while focusing on her emotional ties to current events taking place in the world surrounding her. She also emphasizes on her distinct feelings and their connection to her home, a place that causes her claustrophobic anxiety. “The New Apartment: Minneapolis” reveals Hogan’s psychological response to the building where she lives and the nature of impact on the escape and fantasy embodied in a personal space.…

    • 2077 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Yeats himself said "Poetry is no rootless flower, but the speech of man" and this concept is reflected deeply in his poetic works as he expresses concerns and ideas of close regard to himself and makes them memorable to the reader through his linguistic craftsmanship and mastery of poetic techniques. The Wild Swans At Coole (hereafter WS) examines the theme of intimate change and personal yearning, whilst The Second Coming (hereafter SC) examines change in context with cultural dissolution and fear. It is because Yeats' poetry is so deeply grounded in his own human feelings and is such an artful expression of those emotions that the ideas he presents in these poems resonate with the reader long after the piece has been read.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Yeats Wild Swans of Coole

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages

    One of the most unusual features of Yeats’s poetic career is the fact that the poet came into his greatest powers only as he neared old age; whereas many poets fade after the first burst of youth, Yeats continued to grow more confident and more innovative with his writing until almost the day he died. Though he was a famous and successful writer in his youth, his poetic reputation today is founded almost solely on…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ireland In The 1700s

    • 2186 Words
    • 9 Pages

    But rather, he characterizes them as “barbaric”. This prevailing idealization of the Irish, as barbaric, has thus skewed Irish and English relationships. There is a presumed inferiority of this perceived lower status, rendering them marginalized and victims of an unwavering system of influence. Thus, “barbarism” is used to justify the English gentrification and oppression of the Irish. It is employed to further their (English) vehicle of social, political and economic power against a group beset in poverty.…

    • 2186 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Globalization has affected almost every aspect of life in most all countries around the world from economic to culture with the exchange of goods, services and ideas influencing cultural changes around the world. Food is an important element in defining culture and the globalization of McDonald’s is huge. Most people when they hear the name McDonald’s immediately think of America. Equating McDonald’s with America is sensible since they opened their first restaurant in America back in 1953 and over the years directly influenced American culture in a tremendous way. From the days of a child’s first words McDonalds naturally comes off their lips as a place they want to eat. McDonald’s terms such as super size me have influenced teen culture by making its way into slang. McDonalds is the cool place to eat while at the same time driving our fast past give it to me now American culture. McDonald’s made it easy for Americans to get what they want fast and move on with life. McDonald’s has and still is a strong expression of American culture.…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “Anseo” handles in ways that are not particularly euphemistic the euphemistically named Troubles. “Anseo” displays the important impact the classroom had on one’s aesthetic development which in turn displayed a painful insight into the restrictions of one’s Catholic schooling (Tell, 2005). Muldoon’s poem speaks as a quasi-mythological tale outlining the life of a lower class person in Northern Ireland who eventually rises to hero status. “Anseo” is an open form, free verse poem where Muldoon does not break rhythm; he just refuses to use poetic continuity which resembles the refusal that spills over more openly into the political world which is the underlying concept in this poem (Kendall & McDonald, 2004). But the reason Muldoon feels the need to justify his use of Irish in his poetry is not solely linked to bilingualism but derives from the particular political and cultural significance of the Irish language (Haen, Goerlandt & Sell, 2015). The word “Anseo” is a two-fold in Muldoon’s poem that implies recognition of authority and is used within the circumstances of the roll call at Muldoon’s childhood school at Collegelands and in the military roll call of the IRA. In “Anseo” Muldoon illustrates a young hooligan, Joseph Mary Plunkett Ward whose absences collides with the orderly classroom and who eventually departs the education system in order to “[make] things happen” (1980, pp.20). Ward’s teacher moulds his students by having them embrace their mother tongue just as he moulds Ward into being disciplined through punishment, like clockwork through his use of alliteration “He would arrive as a matter of course/With an ash-plant, a salley-rod. /Or, finally, the hazel wand / He had whittled down to a whip-lash, / Its twists of red and yellow lacquers / Sanded and polished, / And altogether so delicately wrought / That he had engraved his…

    • 1737 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem September 1913 focuses on the time where the Irish Independence was at its highest. Yeats repeats the phrase “romantic Ireland” a lot in this poem as it refers to the sacrifice of the materialistic things for independence and freedom. To further emphasize the importance and greatness of the revolution, Yeats pointed out the names of heroic individuals who gave their lives to fight for the cause. Yeats did not give any detail about the Irish heroes but he does state that “they have gone about the world like wind” (11). The heroes were so famous; their names could be heard and talked about all over the world. In this poem, Yeats does not go directly in to detail about the historical events that happened but focuses on the reactions of Ireland’s citizens and what may have lead to the revolution for independence. According to Yeats, there was a happening or an “inspiration” that had occurred that made way for Ireland to fight for independence as he says “you’d cry ‘some woman’s yellow hair has maddened every mother’s son’” (28). This actually refers to a folkloric character by the name of Cathleen Ni Houlihan, who isn’t…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays