Three Movements

Three Movements - meaning Summary

Poetic Eras as Fish

Yeats compresses literary history into a brief image: poetic traditions become kinds of fish. Shakespearean fish swim freely 'far away from land,' suggesting autonomy or distance from modern life. Romantic fish are already in nets, nearer to human reach or sentiment. The final question about fish gasping on the strand implies lost, exhausted, or obsolete poetic modes, asking what remains vital for poetry now.