The Fish

Kaylah Jones Mia Klopfenstein Geneve Lau

1946

Background ❍ Key West - Florida island

❍ Bishop’s literary style- inspiration from Marianne Moore and Robert Lowell, opposing themes ❍ Groupings of Bishop’s poetry into themes

❍ Descriptive and objective (inspired by Moore): ❍ “The Map”, “The Fish”, “Filling Station”

❍ Personal and emotional (inspired by Lowell): ❍ “Insomnia”, “One Art”, “Crusoe in England”

Summary of Poem❍ Bishop is in a fishing boat

❍ Catches a fish, more precisely, a “tremendous fish”

❍ Holds the fish and examines his physical features

❍ Stares the fish in the eye

❍ She examines the fishing line hanging from the fish from when he had been caught before

❍ She then examines her settings- and lets the fish go

How does Bishop articulate

her impressions of the

physical world throughthe dichotomy

of human and nature?

EnjambmentI caught a tremendous fish

and held him beside the boat

half out of water, with my hook

fast in a corner of his mouth.

...

He hung a grunting weight,

battered and venerable

and homely. Here and there

his brown skin hung in strips

...

and its pattern of darker brown

was like wallpaper:

shapes like full-blown roses

stained and lost through age.

⇒ Running on to following

sentences

⇒ Start of a sentence in a

stanza, free verse style

⇒ Single thoughts continuing to

multiple lines, flowing

While his gills were breathing in

the terrible oxygen

-the frightening gills,

fresh and crisp with blood,

that can cut so badly-

...

I looked into his eyes

which were far larger than mine

but shallower, and yellowed,

the irises backed and packed

with tarnished tinfoil

SymbolismShapes like full blown roses

stained and lost through age.

He was speckled with barnacles,

fine rosettes of lime,

and infested

with tiny white sea-lice

...

I thought of the coarse white flesh

packed in like feathers,

the big bones and the little bones,

the dramatic reds and blacks

of his shiny entrails,

and the pink swim-bladder

like a big peony.

⇒ Roses- flowers

⇒ Barnacles- smaller animals, often

forgotten

Sea lice- parasitic animals

⇒ White flesh- whale blubber

⇒ Feathers- birds

⇒ Big animals + little

⇒ Ugly fish, beautiful on the inside?

⇒ Peony- flowers

He hung a grunting weight,

battered and venerable

and homely. Here and there

his brown skin hung in strips

like ancient wallpaper,

and its patterns of darker brown

…

Like medals with their ribbons

frayed and wavering,

a five-haired beard of wisdom

trailing from his aching jaw.

⇒ Venerable- attained a great

deal of respect, honorable

⇒ Ancient wallpaper-

memories, humans

thinking that nature

needs to be on display

⇒ Wisdom of animals

⇒ Aching jaw, speaking loudly

but not being heard

In what ways does Bishop convey

the theme that

liberation is a result

of empathy?

Overview for Guiding Question 2 Liberation

Empathy

Shared knowledge

Relatable conditions

Gained appreciationPers

onifi

catio

n

Simile

Empathythe ability to understand and share the feelings

of another

Liberationfreedom from limits on thought, behavior, or

preconceived notion

Imagery

PersonificationI caught a tremendous fish

and held him beside the boat

half out of water, with my hook

fast in a corner of his mouth.

He didn't fight.

He hadn't fought at all.

While his gills were breathing in

the terrible oxygen

- the frightening gills,

fresh and crisp with blood,

that can cut so badly-

I thought of the coarse white flesh

packed in like feathers,

I admired his sullen face,

the mechanism of his jaw,

and then I saw

that from his lower lip

—if you could call it a lip—

grim, wet, and weaponlike,

Like medals with their ribbons

frayed and wavering,

a five-haired beard of wisdom

trailing from his aching jaw.

ImageryHere and there

his brown skin hung in strips

like ancient wallpaper,

and its pattern of darker brown

was like wallpaper…

the dramatic reds and blacks

of his shiny entrails,

and the pink swim-bladder

like a big peony.

⇒ Brightness of colors transition over time

⇒ Bishop mentions almost every color in the rainbow▫ Brown, lime, white, green, red, black, pink,

yellow, orange

⇒ Ends with the color rainbow▫ Also the point where she lets the fish go

from the pool of bilge

where oil had spread a rainbow

around the rusted engine

to the bailer rusted orange:

until everything

was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!

And I let the fish go.

ImageryHere and there

his brown skin hung in strips

like ancient wallpaper,

and its pattern of darker brown

was like wallpaper:

shapes like full-blown roses

stained and lost through age.

the dramatic reds and blacks

of his shiny entrails,

and the pink swim-bladder

like a big peony.

He was speckled with barnacles, 8

fine rosettes of lime,

and infested

with tiny white sea-lice,

and underneath two or three

rags of green weed hung down.

While his gills were breathing in

the terrible oxygen

- the frightening gills,

fresh and crisp with blood,

that can cut so badly-

trailing from his aching jaw.

I stared and stared

and victory filled up

the little rented boat,

from the pool of bilge

where oil had spread a rainbow

around the rusted engine

SimileHere and there

his brown skin hung in strips

like ancient wallpaper,

and its pattern of darker brown

was like wallpaper:

shapes like full-blown roses

stained and lost through age.

I thought of the coarse white flesh

...

packed in like feathers,

the big bones and the little bones,

the dramatic reds and blacks

of his shiny entrails,

and the pink swim-bladder

like a big peony.

They shifted a little, but not

to return my stare.

—It was more like the tipping

of an object toward the light.

...

and a fine black thread

still crimped from the strain and

snap

when it broke and he got away.

Like medals with their ribbons

frayed and wavering,

a five-haired beard of wisdom

trailing from his aching jaw.

LiberationBeginning End

I caught a tremendous fish

and held him beside the boat

half out of water, with my hook

fast in a corner of his mouth.

He didn’t fight.

He hadn’t fought at all.

and victory filled up

the little rented boat,

from the pool of bilge

where oil had spread a rainbow

around the rusted engine

to the bailer rusted orange,

the sun-cracked thwarts,

the oarlocks on their strings,

the gunnels—until everything

was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!

And I let the fish go.

Now… discussion!Topics to consider:

“The Fish” in regards to other poems we have

studied by Elizabeth Bishop

Context: what issues were

occurring during the time Bishop

wrote this time she felt strongly about?

What are some of your key takeaways

from this poem? Things that you felt

confused about?Other themes? Love, morality?

Works CitedBishop, Elizabeth. “The Fish.” Academy of American Poets. https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/fish-2. Web. 09 Oct. 2016

Ebberson, Laura. "Elizabeth Bishop's Poetic Voice: Reconciling Influences." Valparaiso Poetry Review (n.d.): n. pag. Print."The Poet Homes of Key West, FL." Academy of American Poets. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2016.