Man And The Echo Flashcards
The effect of the echo. (2)
The Man - Yeats - argues against the echo, showing his frustration at the misinterpretation and misuse of his words by other people.
The Effect of the Echo. (1)
The echo takes the man’s words out of context, changing their meaning and representing how little control you have over your words once they’ve been spoken.
(Stanza 1)
“I lie awake night after night, And never get the answers right”.
Betrays a sense of guilt, thinking about his past actions, and also shows that he is haunted by a sense of unknowing.
(Stance 1)
The poem begins with Yeats…
…imagining that he is going to a dark, cold and quiet place, parodying the journey of the Oracle of Delphi, suggesting a need for answers.
Instead, all he receives is an echo in answer, may be suggesting that there is no God?
(Stanza 1)
Did words of mine out too great a strain, On that woman’s reeling brain?”
Refers to Margo Collins. Mentally unstable writer. Had an affair with, but broke off relationship after becoming dissatisfied with her writing. She suffered a series of mental breakdowns and then committed suicide. He is questioning whether this was his fault.
(Stanza 1)
Did that play of mine, Send out certain men the English shot?”
Questioning whether his play (Cathleen in Houlihan) was the cause or part of the reason why the Easter uprising in 1916 occurred.
Cathleen no Houlihan - encouraged young men to sacrifice themselves for Cathleen… Represented an independent Ireland.
(Stanza 1)
“And all seems evil until I, Sleepless would lie down and die”.
May be suggesting that death is the only release for him or that he would only cause harm to those around him whilst he is alive.
(Stanza 2)
“Wine or love drug him to sleep, Waking he thanks the Lord that he, Has body and its stupidity”.
Yeats disapproved of the use of alcohol/drugs/love to lessen the burdens of life, and that the point of life was to bear the hardships on your own. Yeats believed that to give in to disease or to commit suicide was cowardly.
(Stanza 2)
“And sinks at last into the night”.
Suggestive of nothingness after life.
(Stanza 3)
“Shall we in that great night rejoice?”
Yeats may be questioning the existence of an afterlife and God.
(Stanza 3)
“Stricken rabbit”.
May prep resent humanity. We are all vulnerable to death, and never know when it will strike.
(Stanza 3)
Yeats goes on to conclude that…
…one should live in the moment by finishing with a “Hawk or owl” preying on a “Stricken rabbit”.
“Lie awake…
…night after night”
“Never get…
…the answers right”.
“Did that play of…
…mine send out, Certain men the English shot”.
