Laurel · W. B. Yeats · The Wild Swans at Coole

The Fisherman

W. B. Yeats (1865–1939) · 1919

iambic trimeter · 40 lines · from The Wild Swans at Coole

Although I can see him still,The freckled man who goesTo a grey place on a hillIn grey Connemara clothesAt dawn to cast his flies,It's long since I beganTo call up to the eyesThis wise and simple man.All day I'd looked in the faceWhat I had hoped 'twould beTo write for my own raceAnd the reality;The living men that I hate,The dead man that I loved,The craven man in his seat,The insolent unreproved,And no knave brought to bookWho has won a drunken cheer,The witty man and his jokeAimed at the commonest ear,The clever man who criesThe catch-cries of the clown,The beating down of the wiseAnd great Art beaten down.

Maybe a twelvemonth sinceSuddenly I began,In scorn of this audience,Imagining a manAnd his sun-freckled face,And grey Connemara cloth,Climbing up to a placeWhere stone is dark under froth,And the down turn of his wristWhen the flies drop in the stream:A man who does not exist,A man who is but a dream;And cried, 'Before I am oldI shall have written him onePoem maybe as coldAnd passionate as the dawn.'

Words in this poem

freckled a.: Marked with freckles; spotted.
craven v. t.: To make recreant, weak, spiritless, or cowardly.
unreproved a.: Not reproved. Sandys.
knave n.: A boy; especially, a boy servant. Wyclif. [OE., boy, servant, knave, AS. cnafa boy, youth; cf. AS. cnapa boy, youth, D. kna, G. knabe boy, knappe esquire, Icel. knapi, Sw. knape esquire, knäfvel knave.]
witty a.: Possessed of wit; knowing; wise; skillful; judicious; clever; cunning. [AS. witig, wittig. See Wit, n.]
maybe adv.: Perhaps; possibly; peradventure. [For it may be.]
twelvemonth n.: A year which consists of twelve calendar months.
shall v. i.: To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

The Fisherman is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Wild Swans at Coole, Project Gutenberg ebook #32491; 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 Fisherman, in The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32491, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-wild-swans/the-fisherman.html, id L20013.

Form and metre

The Fisherman is 40 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).

See other poems in iambic trimeter.

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 ABABCDCDE-E------F-FCGCG still^A · goes^B · hill^A · clothes^B · flies^C · began^D · eyes^C · man^D · face^E · be · race^E · reality · hate · loved · seat · unreproved · book · cheer^F · joke · ear^F · cries^C · clown^G · wise^C · down^G
2 ABABCDCDEFEFG-G- since^A · began^B · audience^A · man^B · face^C · cloth^D · place^C · froth^D · wrist^E · stream^F · exist^E · dream^F · old^G · one · cold^G · dawn

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. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
Although I can see him still,	7	·······
The freckled man who goes	7	·/˘˘···
To a grey place on a hill	7	·······
In grey Connemara clothes	7	·······
At dawn to cast his flies,	6	······
It's long since I began	6	····˘/
To call up to the eyes	6	······
This wise and simple man.	6	···/˘·
All day I'd looked in the face	7	·······
What I had hoped 'twould be	7	····˘··
To write for my own race	6	······
And the reality;	6	··˘/˘˘
The living men that I hate,	7	·/˘····
The dead man that I loved,	7	······˘
The craven man in his seat,	7	·/˘····
The insolent unreproved,	7	·/˘˘···
And no knave brought to book	6	······
Who has won a drunken cheer,	7	····/˘·
The witty man and his joke	7	·/˘····
Aimed at the commonest ear,	7	···/˘˘·
The clever man who cries	6	·/˘···
The catch-cries of the clown,	6	······
The beating down of the wise	7	·/˘····
And great Art beaten down.	6	···/˘·
Maybe a twelvemonth since	6	/˘·/˘·
Suddenly I began,	6	/˘˘·˘/
In scorn of this audience,	7	····/˘˘
Imagining a man	6	˘/˘˘··
And his sun-freckled face,	7	···/˘˘·
And grey Connemara cloth,	7	·······
Climbing up to a place	6	/˘····
Where stone is dark under froth,	7	·······
And the down turn of his wrist	7	·······
When the flies drop in the stream:	7	·······
A man who does not exist,	7	·····˘/
A man who is but a dream;	7	·······
And cried, 'Before I am old	7	·······
I shall have written him one	7	···/˘··
Poem maybe as cold	6	/˘/˘··
And passionate as the dawn.'	7	·/˘˘···

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.

More by W. B. Yeats

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