The Meditation of the Old Fisherman
The Meditation of the Old Fisherman - meaning Summary
Youth Contrasted with Loss
An old fisherman looks back on youth and mourns gradual change. Sea imagery—waves, herring, oars—and memories of courtship scenes are summoned to show what has been lost: the warmth, abundance, and beauty he once knew. Repetitive refrain frames the speaker’s wistful voice and suggests an emotional fracture now present where none existed in youth. The poem contrasts past certainty with present sorrow and diminished pleasure.
Read Complete AnalysesYou 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-cart That 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 oar Is 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.
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