Elizabeth Bishop

Today I would like to talk about Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish". As many of you know by now, I am a zoology major so I am very intrigued by poems about animals. This poem cauth my attention almost imediatly with the various adjectives she choses to describe the fish. The first line reads as follows, "I caught a temeddous fish/ and held him beside the boat. half out of water, with my hook/fast in the corner of his mouth." (lines 1-4). These opening lines give you a vivid picture of the setting this person is in. Obviously the character is fishing but this author's descriptions only get better through out the poem. Another line that I really enjoyed was as follows, "...Here and there/his brown skin hung in strips like ancient walpaper," (lines 9-11). It is here we start envisioning the fish, When I read this line I picture old brown, wrinkly wall paper draped across his body. I also really liked the line about the fish's gills, "While his gills ere breathing in/the terrible oxygen--the frightening gills,/ fresh and crisp with blood," (lines 22-25). My absolute favorite piece of this entire poem, is when the author describes the fish's beard, or so we think. "if you could call it a lip/ grim, wet, and weaponlike,/ hung five old pieces of fish-line,/ or four and a wire leade....Like medals with their ribbons/ frayed and wavering,/ a five-haired beard of wisdom/trailing from his aching jaw". This shows not only how many times this fish had gotten away but his will to live. The poem goes on to explain the feelings the character felt and how the person goes on to let the fish go to live and keep growing his beard.