Through detailed imagery and word choice, Bishop emphasizes the importance of being humble, especially when in a position of power, in order to recognize and appreciate the beauty in the ugly. By describing the overall imagery, Bishop focuses the beginning of her poem on the relationship between the hunter and the hunted. By starting the poem with the scene of catching a fish, the speaker immediately places herself on a higher scale of power than the fish. With the words “my hook… in… his mouth,” the speaker establishes a close relationship with her catch. By repeating “he didn’t fight,” Bishop shows her surprise how the “tremendous fish” let himself be captured without fighting. From there, Bishop personifies this fish with human characteristics …show more content…
He is constantly described with homely things such as “skin hung in strips,” “darker brown,” “barnacles,” and “lime”. Yet, Bishop qualifies these homely descriptions into something more beautiful through delicate language. Instead of showing a fish’s “brown skin hung in strips,” Bishop shows “wallpaper.” She constantly compares the fish to roses, such as “full-blown roses” or “fine rosettes of lime” to demonstrate that just like how every rose has its thorn, every homely thing has its own beauty. Throughout these descriptions, Bishop also continues to show her admiration for this fish’s age and wisdom. Despite their homeliness, the “barnacles” and “lime” are a physical indicator of the fish’s age. However, the speaker glorifies this by calling this fish “ancient wallpaper” as opposed to just “old wallpaper” along with the description of it being “stained and lost through age,” which gives the fish a vintage feel. Despite these speaker’s metaphorical glorifications to emphasize the beauty of the fish, the speaker reinforces the underlying idea that he is ultimately homely by going back to straightforward descriptions of his infestations of “tiny white sea-lice” and “rags of green