The Fisherman Flashcards
What is the context of ‘The Fisherman’?
- From The Wild Swans At Coole 1919
- WBY saw a fisherman sometime in the past who was one with nature, and believes that all Irish people should aspire to this image rather than to consumerist and extravagant
- Against modern Ireland and for traditional Ireland
- Connemara in the West of Ireland and WBY was critical of the ‘commoners’ living in the east, such as Dublin
What does the title ‘The Fisherman’ portray?
- “The Fisherman” is very simplistic and idealistic: no pretentions or arrogance emphasises - how WBY wants all Irish people to be
How does WBY show the fisherman’s link to nature in ‘The Fisherman’
“freckled man […] grey place […] In grey Connemara clothes” – the “freckled” complexion displays the rocky land of the Connemara whilst the fisherman’s grey clothes link to the “grey place” of the “Connemara”: emphasises the fisherman’s link with nature and the land where he lives → repeated in second stanza for emphasis
“cast his flies”- reference to fishing flies or animal flies: either way, it emphasises the fisherman’s link to nature → repeated “flies” in 2nd stanza for emphasis
How does WBY show his distaste of modern Ireland in ‘The Fisherman’?
“The craven man in his seat/ The insolent unreproved” […]
“The witty man and his joke / Aimed at the commonest ear, /
The clever man who cries/ The catch-cries of the clown”
- WBY says what he dislikes about the modern Irishman: how they are rude, ironic, common and distasteful
- The use of anaphora emphasises the list like form, and how many things Yeats dislikes about them and the extent to which he does
“The beating down of the wise/ and great Art beaten down” – Chiasmus ABAB of “beating down”, “beaten down” highlights WBY’s displeasure at how modern Ireland disregards art- makes reference to Hugh Lane Bequest and illustrates the absence of romanticism in Ireland
“In scorn of this audience”- the purpose of the poem is identified here as to discard the principles of a modern Ireland and idealise of his perfect, Romantic Irishman
How does WBY show his admiration and preference for past Ireland in ‘The Fisherman’
“Maybe a twelve-month since” - Use of old English “twelve-month” emphasises his preference for past Ireland – similar to “half-pence” in September 1913
How is WBY hope shown in ‘The Fisherman’?
“The wise and simple man”- WBY shows how the fisherman was intelligent yet not consumerist or overly extravagant: what he hopes for the rest of modern Ireland to be like
The simple ABAB rhyme scheme and the simple, uncomplicated language emphasise the “wise and simple” traits that WBY is striving for + only 2 stanzas, and similar line length all adds to the simplicity
“all I had hoped ‘twould be/ To write for my own race/ and the reality:” – emphasises the contrast between how he hoped that the traits of the fisherman that he had previously described would also describe the rest of the Irish population (his “race”) but the “reality” is different.
“Climbing up to a place/ where stone is dark under froth” – “climbing up” emphasises how the ideal of the fisherman becomes the pinnacle of Yeats’ hope for Irishmen“stone is dark under froth” emphasises how the natural “stone” such as that in the Connemara is being polluted and covered by modern attitudes (“froth”) yet Yeats can still see it, although it is obscured
How does WBY show that the fisherman is an ideal and not a reality?
“Imagining a man” strongly contrasts with “Although I can see him still” (the 1st line of the poem) and highlights how, as time has passed, the image of the romantic Irishman is fading and all Yeats sees is the modern and decadent Irishman- now the fisherman is nothing more than an ideal, made up of a figment of WBY’s imagination
“A man who does not exist, / A man who is but a dream” – emphasises how The Fisherman as a person and a poem is nothing more than a Utopian vision and is not at all reality
What does the line “The living men that I hate/ The dead man that I loved” show in ‘The Fisherman’?
Chiasmus of “living”, “men”, “hate”, “dead”, “man”, “loved” (ABCABC) exemplifies the contrast between the history of Ireland that he loves and the detestable modern Ireland
“Living men I hate” represents William Martin Murphy whom rejected the Hugh Lane Bequest
“Dead man I loved” represents, for example, John Millington Synge, an Irish playwright whom WBY thought was a genius and/or O’Leary for example
Anaphora also exemplifies the contrast
What lines show WBY defence mechanism against the masses of whom he disapproves in ‘The Fisherman’
“ ‘before I am old/ I shall have written him one/ Poem maybe as cold/ And passionate as dawn’ ”
-Contrast between “cold” and “passionate” of the “poem” could mean many things in Yeats’ life:
- Contrast between (“passionate”) unrequited love and (“cold”) love that is unreturned (The Cold Heaven)
- Contrast between the night (time of confusion and horror) to the morning (dawn = awakening)
- Those who appreciate Art (J.M Synge) and those who don’t (W.M Murphy)
- Ireland under English rule (“cold”) and a free Ireland (“passionate”)
“dawn” represents a new era and a time of awakening for Ireland: for people to respect and appreciate the traditional values of The Fisherman
