The Meditation of the Old Fisherman
You waves, though you dance by my feet like children at play,Though you glow and you glance, though you purr and you dart;In the Junes that were warmer than these are, the waves were more gay,When I was a boy with never a crack in my heart.
The herring are not in the tides as they were of old;My sorrow! for many a creak gave the creel in the cartThat carried the take to Sligo town to be sold,When I was a boy with never a crack in my heart.
And ah, you proud maiden, you are not so fair when his oarIs heard on the water, as they were, the proud and apart,Who paced in the eve by the nets on the pebbly shore,When I was a boy with never a crack in my heart.
Words in this poem
- purr v. i.
- To murmur as a cat. See Pur.
- creak v. i.
- To make a prolonged sharp grating or ssqueaking sound, as by the friction of hard substances; as, shoes creak. [OE. creken, prob. of imitative origin; cf. E. crack, and. D. kreiken to crackle, chirp.]
- creel n.
- An osier basket, such as anglers use. [Gael. craidhleag basket, creel.]
- pebbly a.
- Full of pebbles; pebbled.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Meditation of the Old Fisherman is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #38877; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. B. Yeats, The Meditation of the Old Fisherman, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38877, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-poems/the-meditation-of-the-old-fisherman.html, id L16693.
Form and metre
The Meditation of the Old Fisherman is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.9 syllables. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB playA · dartB · gayA · heartB
- 2 ABAB oldA · cartB · soldA · heartB
- 3 ABAB oarA · apartB · shoreA · heartB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| You waves, though you dance by my feet like children at play, | 13 | ·········/˘·· |
| Though you glow and you glance, though you purr and you dart; | 12 | ············ |
| In the Junes that were warmer than these are, the waves were more gay, | 15 | ·····/˘········ |
| When I was a boy with never a crack in my heart. | 12 | ······/····· |
| The herring are not in the tides as they were of old; | 13 | ·/˘·········· |
| My sorrow! for many a creak gave the creel in the cart | 13 | ·/˘·/········ |
| That carried the take to Sligo town to be sold, | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| When I was a boy with never a crack in my heart. | 12 | ······/····· |
| And ah, you proud maiden, you are not so fair when his oar | 14 | ····/˘········ |
| Is heard on the water, as they were, the proud and apart, | 14 | ····/˘······˘/ |
| Who paced in the eve by the nets on the pebbly shore, | 13 | ··········/˘· |
| When I was a boy with never a crack in my heart. | 12 | ······/····· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.