MaizulC



Voice Thread: voicethread.com/share/971616

"The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop

I caught a tremendous fish and held him beside the boat half out of water, with my hook fast in a corner of its mouth. He didn’t fight. He hadn’t fought at all. He hung a grunting weight, battered and venerable and homely. Here 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. He was speckled with barnacles, 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 — 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. I looked into his eyes which were far larger than mine but shallower, and yellowed, the irises backed and packed with tarnished tinfoil seen through the lenses of old scratched isinglass. They shifted a little, but not to return my stare. — It was more like the tipping of an object toward the light. 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, hung five old pieces of fish-line, or four and a wire leader with the swivel still attached, with all their five big hooks grown firmly in his mouth. A green line, frayed at the end where he broke it, two heavier lines, 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. 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 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.

TPCASTT for “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop **Diction:** Contributes to image of the fish. Words such as tremendous (line 1), grunting (line 7), and battered (line 8), contribute to the overall appearance of the fish, lending to the concept that the fish was not easy to catch. Words such as hung (line 10) and ancient (line 11) show the age of the fish, strengthen the ongoing theme of resilience in the fish. The words terrible (line 23), frightening (line 24) and coarse (line 27) lend the image of a fearsome beast, something that is not easily scared or intimidated by outside forces. The words tarnished (line 38), scratched (line 40), and mechanism (line 45) are all words used in relation to machines and moving parts. This implies that the fish has a somewhat strong, corporate appearance, rather like an old tool.
 * Title**: The title of Bishop’s poem connotes fishing, being outdoors, nature, water, captivity, entrapment. The title can possibly allude to a meal, the fish either being a positive or negative aspect of said meal. The title suggests that the speaker will be giving some account related to a particular fish.
 * Paraphrase**: The poem as about the capture of a fish. The speaker relates the capturing of an enormous fish. The speaker describes the fish. The fish is old, its skin looking shabby and decayed. The fish didn’t resist the fisherman (the speaker). The fish is somewhat old and the speaker sees that the fish actually has five hooks in its lip, from fisherman who have caught it previously. The speaker revels in the in the feeling of accomplishment at having caught this apparently un catchable fish, and after awhile, releases the fish.
 * Connotation: **
 * Imagery:** Heavy use of sensory imagery. Lines 1-5 describe the fish as being exceptionally large, hanging half out of water, half in, being a grunting weight. Lines 10- 21 describe the actual appearance of the fish, appealing to visual imagery by providing vivid color descriptions such as brown skin, rosettes of lime, tiny white sea lice, green weed. Lines 22- 33 follow along the same track, however, making an appraisal of the inside of the fish, describing his white flesh, red and black of its entrails, and the pink swim bladder. This gives the reader a strong sense of the nobleness of this old fish and how tremendously fortunate the catch was.
 * Details:** The details in Bishop’s poem run concurrently with the imagery. In providing clear and colorful imagery, specific details concerning the fish are also discussed. The use of detail in this poem serves to convey how tremendous this fish was. The vivid description of the hooks and lines still attached to the fish’s lip liken the fish to an old military veteran, making the fish wise and experienced in all matters of fish life, including being caught by a fisherman.
 * Attitude:** The speaker is excited and in awe. They describe the fish in a glorified manner, remarking on its size and strength and age. This shows that the speaker is honored and even proud that the fish allowed itself to be caught when it could obviously escape.
 * Theme:** The theme of Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish” is that pride and accomplishment must sometimes be overruled in order to provide an end to suffering and honor accomplishment.
 * Title:** The title provides depth to all of the various attributes that might be associated with a fish.