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What Is The Mood Of The Poem The Fish

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The poem that will be discussed is “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop. This poem takes place out on the ocean or bay area on a rented boat. The poem is told by a woman, we think, that has caught a fish and is contemplating what she wants to do with it. The first two lines, along with the title, gets to the heart of the story and tells what it’s all about. She has just caught a huge fish and is admiring the catch. She is clearly excited about the haul, but a little puzzled; as she observed the fish, she noticed that he didn’t fight at all. The next few lines describe the appearance of the fish in detail. In lines (10-15), Bishop states “the brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper, and its pattern of darker brown was like wallpaper: shapes …show more content…

By doing this, Bishop encourages the reader to feel sympathy for the fish and see it as a victim. No longer excitement after the great haul, but pity and sorrow for the fish. She is surprised by her feelings for the fish and never expected to think twice about the appearance of any fish that she hooked. “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” (33-39). She is clearly mesmerized by this odd-looking fish and doesn’t know why. Further inspection shows that the fish has been on the end of a fishing rod multiple times on lines (49-54) “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.” Little does she realize her feelings towards the fish is changing

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While a child may laugh at the humorous image, the image represents the external conflict of the danger to the Fish. The Cat, at this point in the story, is representative of the Freud’s Id, “the part of the personality that contains our primitive impulses” (NCTE). The Cat represents the child’s primitive impulse to play, or have fun, without self-control or thinking of the consequences that might follow. If the Cat continues with this balancing act and slips, the items may fall, causing the house to become a mess, but the dander to the Fish is more substantial. The Fish, who cannot defend

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