Fishing on the Susquehanna in July Commentary

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Fishing on the Susquehanna in July, a poem by Billy Collins, explores the theme that the speaker desires to obtain more out of life and to realise a deeper interest of life. To begin, the title of the poem is to an extent ironic in way that the speaker is creating a false assumption that he is actually experiencing fishing on this river. However, he starts the poem by stating that he has “never been fishing on the Susquehanna” this demonstrates a lack of action where the audience were expecting an appropriate setting. Then he goes on to say “not in July or any month have I had the pleasure-if it is a pleasure” this shows that he would really want to experience, but he can’t because his thoughts and feeling are acting as a barrier to this pleasant experience “I’am more likely to be found…on the Susquehanna” this conveys his thoughts directly and indirectly and reveals his central personality, which can be seen as a painter. Later on he goes on to describe his thoughts about the experience of the moment, the lively verbs “rowing”, “sliding” and “raising” shows how the speaker really feels about fishing on the Susquehanna river, which is portrayed by the glorified imagery of the setting in the painting later on in the museum; this invited the reader to compromise the validity if the experience and to doubt whether he really does want to fish on this river. He uses the idea of the museum as examination of his own sensory and perceptual experiences and applies the “painting” to the situation of himself. To conclude the speaker is mixed in two different worlds, one the word of art and painting, and two the desire to obtain more out of life. He uses the river as a metaphor to convey his thoughts and feelings about the real world and how people should deepen their thinking of their interests and do what they

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