I lie awake night after night

And never get the answers right

Discuss Yeats presentation of knowledge in Man and the
Echo (30)
In your answer explore the efects of language imagery and
verse form and consider how this poem relates to other
poems y Yeats that you have studied!
Yeats haunting contemplation of death and refection of his life in
Man and the Echo is successfully used as a platform to spite the
concept of knowledge, which he had previously treasured. s the
man argues with the echo !an e"tention of himself# Yeats portrays
his mind as an accumulation of internal conficts, repenting for the
controvertial actions he commited earlier in his life. lthough written
within a short period of time of each other, the poem $mong %chool
&hildren e"presses the poets feeling of full'llment with respect to
his achievements in life( a contradiction to the notion of $)he Man
and the Echo. Yeats denotes the purpose of each stan*a
thematically( initally he descri+es the damage knowledge can +ring,
which precedes the e"ploration of its necessity upon realisation of
approaching death, and 'nally its vulnera+ility to distraction.
,nowledge is regarded as a treacherous gift +y Yeats in this poem,
and is understood to have posed as a signi'cant threat in his past.
Yeats uses pathetic fallocy to open his poem, +ringing the reader to
the dark and gloomy pit that +road noon never lit. semantic
'eld of inharmony is felt +y the use of ominous imagery, such as
that of a +roken stone and the +ottom of a pit. )his itself
indicates the negative perspective Yeats has from the start of this
poem. )his rather dismal description of the &ounty %ligo !$lt#,
which is part of his native -reland, indicates to the reader that Yeats
feels that his misuse of knowledge has tainted his outlook on even
the purest and pictures.ue of places / rural -reland. Mimicing the
fa+led 0recian 1ourney to the 2racle, Yeats faces a perilous voyage
to discover what had +een his purpose, or his faults, in life. )he
o"ymoron of shout!ing# a secret / where+y something that should
+e kept .uiet is cried out with conviction / indicates that this poem
is a declaration of the negativity and true emotions he felt in regard
to his past actions, which he does not hesitate to release, now that
he is old and ill. Yeats proceeds to e"plain his fears that his play,
&athleen ni 3oulihan !+ased on the re+ellion and ultimate death of
a personi'ed -reland# may have ironically sparked the re+ellion and
ultimate deaths of the iconic -rish leaders of the Easter 4ising. )his
sense of remorse for the romantic heroes con1oins with the sense of
respect Yeats demonstrated towards the same party in his poem
%eptem+er 5657. -n this instance, Yeats descri+es how knowledge
can directly infuence violence, death and destruction. )he poet
worries that his words caused negative action, such as inspiring men
to commense confict, and failed to cause positive action, such as
stopping a house from +eing 8wrecked.8 Yeats continued use of
rhetorical .uestions +ased around the rule of three emphasises the
profoundness of the link +etween knowledge and turmoil, shot9...
+rain9... wrecked9 3is unanswered .uestions, however, refect the
impossi+ility of knowing the actual e:ect of his words. ;hile his
work certainly could have motivated certain men rise against the
8English 8, Yeats has no way of knowing that it actually did. )his in
turn provokes the reader to .uestion the 1usti'cation of Yeats
involvement in the -rish revolutions / he ultimately does not have
control over how readers interpret his words. 3e thereafter implies
his fear that his words 8put too great strain8 on people<s minds, who
su+se.uently fail to understand his intentions altogether. 2ne such
e"ample in this poem was that woman +y the name of Margaret
4uddock, who went mentally ill during her stint as Yeats lover.
4egardless of how carefully he e"presses himself, a reader<s
interpretation of these words can alter their intended meaning as
easily as the Echo alters his spoken voice. )he use of the
particularly emotive word evil in the penultimate line of the 'rst
stan*a compliments the idea of a sleepless ghost, who foregoes
his sins +y leaving life +ehind. )he morose tone suggests that
knowledge is a +ringer of sorrow, thus reinforcing the popular idea
that $ignorance is +liss.
2nce esta+lishing the dangers of spiritual intellect, Yeats is critical
of it in terms of its necessity with regards to leaving life in a ful'lling
manner. 3e e"plains that if a man were to shirk an
acknowledgement of his spiritual intellects great work, he would
not +e a+le to lay down and die without cleaning his dirty slate,
or otherwise, recogni*ing and repenting for the sins he commited
through his knowledge. ,nowledge, however, is viewed as a tool as
opposed to an attri+ute, contrary to the wise and simple
'sherman who was descri+ed in Yeats depiction of an ideal
-rishman. )he second half of this stan*a illustrates that one would
retain their +ody if they turn to wine or love to e"perience
temporary sleep, therefore implying that true rest and evasion from
life is not possi+le without the intervention of knowledge without
which there would not +e one clear view on his fate. -t, on the
other hand, highlights Yeats avoidance of the task at hand( he can<t
stress enough the importance of refection and introspection +efore
death, +ut 1ust stand!ing# in 1udgement is wholly dissimilar to
actually going through the said process. )he implication of the
poets failure to act upon what he advocates as so important is that
he truly wishes to avoid acknowledgement of his actions and would
rather, as his own voice tells him in the form of an echo 8lie down
and die.8 )his therefore suggests that the Echo is indeed not a
separate entity from Man at all +ut rather a representation of his
true, underlying desires. )his concept of 1udgement and
conse.uent reconciliation is contradictory to the idea of imminent
destruction and an apocalypse in the form of a rough +east as a
result of millenia of sin, as displayed in his poem $)he %econd
&oming. Yeats true message aligns itself at the point he states
that only when intellect grows sure of ones treachory in the past,
can a man arrange the thoughts in one clear view, which pursues
the thoughts that !Yeats# pursue, where+y the clima" is peaceful
death. )he use of the phrase at last implies the un+eara+ly long
wait he endured to e"perience peace, which was hampered +y his
.uest to achieve enlightenment. )he epetition of -nto the night +y
the mans echo shows that the poets true desire was always to
escape life, along with its +urdens, and dissolve into the darkness
away from speculation. )he association of the word sinks with the
notion of defation and failure to keep afoat implies the de1ected
manner in which he forfeits control over his life and lets nature take
its course. nother way Yeats demonstrates the value of knowledge
is through his e:ective poetic skills used to convey his thoughts.
)his poem is similar to many of Yeats other works which are
dialectical, with two voices of de+ate such as $Easter 565=. )his
ensures that the reader e"periences two viewpoints on an
argument, e"periencing Yeats nature of duality and internal
confiction. -n this case, the Man and the Echo serve as the
aforementioned roles. )he language is presented with a slow and
controlled pace made +y the meter and emphasised +y regular
caesurae. )his straightforwardness demonstrates Yeats attempt to
use knowledge to assess his past and how he looks forward to
death. )he lucid >> rhyme scheme and ?@6 sylla+le pentameter
produces a rhythm which is +roken up +y the rashness of the Echo.
)his emphasises Yeats lack of control over his darker impulses,
which speak out in +lunt sentences, Aie down and dieB -nto the
night. )he ram+ling poet therefore appears hesitant and uneasy
during his analysis of life, whereas the 1u"taposing short phrases
said +y the Echo draws power to its words. )his represents the
im+alance of power within a person, and how knowledge and reason
will always pave way to sel'sh desires.
)he highly evaluative approach Yeats has on his life in the 'rst two
stan*as has no +earing on the distractions he faces in the clima" of
the poem. Yeats addresses his echo as a spiritual leader, 2 rocky
voice imploring whether he has done enough to re1oice in the
afterlife. )he ignorance and naivity in the statement, ;hat do we
know +utB one another indicates that Yeats does not practise what
he preaches( he appears to a+andon the concept of knowledge.
lmost with immediate e:ect, Yeats uses the negative con1unction,
>ut as a turning point in which he starts to lose the theme. )he
successive lines draws Yeats attention to his super'cial
surroundings, some hawk or owlB a stricken ra++it )his dismissal
of the ma1ority of the poem as +ut a dream undermines the
conception of knowledge, revealing to the reader the weakness of
the mind. )his colla+orates with the idea +ehind $mong %chool
&hildren, which indicates that in order for a soul to achieve
enlightenment, the +ody must su:er +y ignoring distractions, thus
implying that enlightenment does not solely root from the
application of knowledge, +ut rather through la+our. ;ritten at
the age of CD, Yeats is nearing his death and acknowledges that his
la+our may have disguised itself in the form of loneliness and guilt.
lthough the poet 'nally reali*es and confronts the rift +etween his
+ody and his voice, his Echo does not reply with a comforting
reassurance of their connection and Man forgets what he has +een
talking a+out when a stricken ra++it cries out. )he poem ends with
the +leak fate of a vulnera+le ra++it, refecting the inevita+le
destruction of Yeats pathway to peace, due to his vulnera+ility to
the hawk of distraction. )his rather wretched cry is the uninspiring
answer to the Mans .ueries and could +e read as an omen to a
similar cry of hopelessness on Yeats +ehalf. )he rapid evaporation
of Yeats encounter with his soul mirrors the image of air he sees
when fantasi*ing a+out his lover in >roken Ereams. -n +oth
scenarios, a eutopian situation of reconciliation with ones soul and
a kindreds soul !respectively# is downplayed as a 'gment of Yeats
imagination, preserving a som+re and unpromising tone.
Man and the Echo, to conclude, provides the reader with a rather
unusual viewpoint on knowledge. feature that is commonly
coupled with spiritual enlightnement and ful'llment is regarded as
nothing more than a +arrier to full'llment. Yeats shows regret that
he was an am+assador for knowledge as opposed to la+our during
his life, and implores the reader to consider how they use
knowledge in their life. )he use of the word $Man causes the poem
to +e applica+le to anyone, serving as a warning to others not to
misuse knowledge to the e"tent that Yeats did. 3e 'nally uses the
poem as a platform to demonstrate the rekindling +etween his two
personas, discouraging the reader to sever ties +etween their
thoughts and soul.