Explanation Of The Poem 'The Fish' By Elizabeth Bishop

‘The Fish’ by Elizabeth Bishop is a free form poem where the poet does a spectacular job in describing what has occurred from the moment she catches a fish, to the time she releases it, after a chain of rather interesting events. At the beginning of the poem, Bishop creates an image of a helpless fish, which is held captive by the narrator in the poem. In doing so, she is able to guide the audience into feeling sorry for the fish and the situation described in the poem in general. She commences by describing the fish’s ‘skin’, its gills, jaw, white flesh and lip to generate an image in the audience’s mind of the fish in question and to assist them in developing an attachment with the fish (Bishop 463). She further uses her imagination to remove the flesh of the fish, revealing its inner contents, which she mentions as different parts, a move that could be described as her visualizing the fish, as different parts could be used
Bishop uses a substantial amount of imagery and well-conveyed descriptions that act as successful tools in getting the audience to develop a great admiration for something as simple, as a fish. Afterward, she decides to the set the fish free, and this transpires after she is able to identify herself within the fish. The identification with the fish solidifies the belief that nature is and has always been an ecological system where the existence of one element is greatly determined by other elements occurring in nature (Bishop 464). Near the end of the poem, the audience can recognize that the ship used by the narrator had been in use for an extensive period of time, resulting in its tattered state. Despite its leaking oil and its corrosive engine, it is on this ship that the narrator managed to catch the