The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop Research Assignment Paper (Essay Sample)

Name
Instructor
Course Title
Date
The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop
The poem is about an extraordinary experience releasing a fish that she caught after a long struggle. Elizabeth Bishop gives a lot of information in describing the fish for she needs the audience to have a reasonable comprehension of what has been caught. All the detailed information she gives is because the fish is not an ordinary one but a “tremendous” fish as she calls it in the first line of the first stanza. The fish is amazing in appearance. The fish displays an ecological awareness to the reader to appreciate the relationships between humans and non-humans. The poem is famous since it does not use surrealism that makes most of Elizabeth Bishop’s earlier poems puzzling. The narrator is sententious and thus making it easier for the reader to identify with. In this paper, I will look into how the poet has used various elements of poetry and compare what other scholars have concerning the poem. In The Fish, Bishop uses imagery and narration and sensitive tone to make the piece unquestionably successful.
The poet has employed imagery in the poem The Fish. In her endeavors to have readers translate their general surroundings, her poem has a relationship of the image, thus creating a narrative that exists outside the poem. For example, after the narrator has caught the "tremendous" and "venerable" fish, the poet makes use of color to describe the fish with its dark brown patterns of scales. In line 30, she says the fish had “dramatic reds and blacks.” While color appears like a coherent side of Bishop's works, there is a lot here not to speculate something more noteworthy is going on. The first time the color of the fish is mentioned is in line 12 ….” brown, if you think about it, is actually pretty bland.” The poet goes on to use color within the poem, and the climax of it all comes in the last stanza in line 75. After the development of all the colors, the rainbow comes, which concurs with the activity in the poem. This means that while the narrator is thinking about what do about the fish, and starts to acquire regard and comprehension for him, the rainbow begins to form. The appearance of the rainbow signifies the epiphany moment. After the rainbow, the narrator lets the fish go. With regard to these, the poet uses the rainbow as an image of the climax of the decisions-letting the fish to go. Also, the rainbow could be symbolizing the speaker putting all the pieces (colors) together to make the mega decision-to release the fish. The poet changes everything to vivid imagery. She has very keen eye to detail which is why she uses imagery to create vivid images in the mind of the reader.
In the first line of the poem, Bishop bombards the reader with images of the fish. She says the fish is “tremendous,” “battered,” “homely” and “venerable.” At this point in the poem, the reader sympathizes with the situation of the fish. Bishop combines both similes and imagery to create an image in the mind of the reader. The poet compares the fish with common household items “like ancient wallpaper” in line 11. She uses detailed imagery to explain what she notices about the fish she has caught. The poem has a climatic ending that binds it all together. The use of imagery draws us into her words and makes us think that it is the narrator that actually caught the fish.
The poet has also used a sensitive tone that helps the reader to visualize the beauty of the fish. In some instances, the tone seems thoughtful and distant. This is depicted in the phrase “I admired his sullen face” in line 45. We the readers are persuaded into giving a closer look because the poet also does that in the poem. The use of narration is also a key poetic element in this poem. The poem is written in free verse which helps the reader to read through and in turn be involved. The narration is believable, and because of this, the readers go along with the narrator, taking on her view and beginning a bond as the poem develops. Through the narration of the speaker, the readers get to discover the beauty of the fish. The use of the first person form “I” makes us read and move together with the narrator. This is evident in line 34 "I looked into his eyes.”
In Modern American Poetry, other critics also have their say concerning the poem The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop. They include Betsy Erkkila, Bonnie Costello, Jeredith Merrin and Susan McCabe. According to Susan McCabe Bishop counters the claims of modernization for an impersonal artist and an autonomous work of art. She says that Bishop’s works do not represent escapes into perfected forms. Further, she says that Bishop’s writings call attention to language processes constructing identity. “Bishop's writing never represents an escape into perfected forms, but instead draws attention to the processes of language that construct identity” (McCabe, 95). McCabe further argues that Bishop’s poem deeply enmesh personal experience. On the contrary, Jeredith Merrin has huge praise for Elizabeth Bishop’s poem. “Throughout her work, she subverts the conventional Romantic trope of world-as-woman [….] According to Merrin; Bishop leaves aside the egocentric of Wordsworth. Instead, she externalizes and focuses outward as is shown in her poem The Fish. Merrin praises Bishop’s perception on catching the fish and finally letting it go as a “co-optive figuration.” Bonnie Costello praises the particular narration of the poem. He compares Bishop’s introduction and the mid-poem stage. â&eur...