As a child in Cornwall, England, Virginia Woolf had some irreversible fishing experiences that have influenced her life. In this excerpt, Woolf’s language obviously conveys the significance of those moments. Woolf uses her language in her first had experiences, her father’s impression, and at the end of the passage to help enhance these lasting moments. Woolf blatantly states “how can I convey the excitement” (15-16) of fishing. Immediately after, she describes “there was …showed first 75 words of 543 total…

…showed last 75 words of 543 total…the question remains, for her, what if I was a fisher. Woolf takes the opportunity in this passage to convey her childhood experiences fishing. She uses her language in an excellent way of doing that, but what Woolf is doing is savoring a time in her life. Not that she really wants to go back to that time, but that she realizes the priceless worth of the experiences and she wonders what would have happened.