For men must work and women must weep,

And the sooner it’s over [the sooner to sleep],

And good-bye to the bar and its moaning.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

Biography. Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), clergyman, lecturer, poet, and novelist, was born in Dartmoor, England. During his earlier years he lived in the beautiful Fen Country, the scenery of which made a deep impression on him. He was a friend of Tennyson and a poet of real excellence. His ballads, “The Three Fishers” and “The Sands of Dee,” are widely read and admired, and his novel Westward Ho! is a brilliant narrative of adventure. In “The Three Fishers” he shows that he has studied the fisher folk of his native country and sees with genuine sympathy their hard life and the courage that enables them to brave the perils of the sea.

Discussion. 1. What does the poem tell you about the three fishers? 2. What does it suggest? 3. Where could a stanza be inserted to tell a part of the story that is only suggested? 4. Do you think this would improve the poem? 5. What signs were there of an approaching storm? 6. Why does the occupation of deep-sea fishers train them to understand signs indicating changes in the weather? 7. Why did these fishers go out to sea notwithstanding signs of a storm? 8. What other thought do you think was in their minds as “Each thought on the woman who loved him best”? 9. What idea of the deep-sea fishers does this poem give you? 10. What idea of the sea? 11. What other poems do you know that tell of life on the sea? 12. What idea of the sea does each give?

Phrases