The poem “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop is a well written and information filled poem. The poem is essentially about a woman who loves to fish, but she catches this one particular fish and throws it back in the water, rather than keeping it. At first she is just excited that she caught a tremendous looking fish, and then after she stares at the fish for a while she starts to feel sympathetic towards the little guy and ultimately releases it back into the water.
Early in the first few lines of the poem we can tell that the fish is aged. Bishop uses lines telling us that it is a big fish and that he was heavy. She also describes him as she’s reeling him and says, “He didn’t fight, He hadn’t fought at all.” This tells the reader that the fish has been through the process of battling with a human before, but instead of fighting this time the fish decides not to struggle at all and be defeated. To start off the poem Bishop says, “I caught a tremendous fish and held him beside the boat half out of the water, with my hook fast in the corner of his mouth.” She seems very disconnected from the fish as she is bringing him into the boat. Once she brings it in and stares at the fish, it seems her views change and she becomes more concerned about the fish’s life. She describes the fish as being, “battered and venerable and homely.” This tells the reader that the fish looks a little bent out of shape.
As she moves towards the fish’s head she notices that there are five different fishing lines drooping from his lips. She describes the fishing rods as, “Like medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering, a five-haired beard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw.” After she sees this she then admires the fish. Not only has this fish snapped five fisherman’s lines that have tried to rail it in, but it still swims around alive with five hooks in his mouth; that’s pretty impressive. She then uses the line, “I stared and stared and victory filled up the little rented boat.” I don’t know if she feels victorious because she has captured the creature that defeated so many others before, or if she feels that the fish was victorious because of his past escapes. Either way the woman has a lot of respect for the fish now that she’s seen what it has been through.
By the end of the poem the narrator sees similarities between the fish and the rusty old rented boat she was using. The fish was old and beat up a little bit just like her boat was, but that didn’t mean that it still didn’t function. By this point in the poem the reader is feeling sympathetic for the fish as well and hopes that it is set free. She lets the fish free at the end and it was a happy ending to a great story and poem.
1 comment:
The fisher man in the reading seemed to change her belief about fish as the poem moved along. At the beginning of the poem, she was excited about the big, old fish she had caught and was admiring it as it hung from the string barely holding on to its life. But at the end of the poem the girl feels so bad for the old fish that she lets free from the hook so it can continue to live its life in the lake. I agree that the main character feels bad for the fish and that is why he allowed it to swim free in the water.
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