ENL 168: "'The Fish' and Freedom"

Jolene Brown

Dr. A. Williamson

English 168

May 5, 2009

“The Fish” and Freedom

The poem “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop tells of a fisherman who catches a very old fish. Though at first the fisherman is not impressed with the fish, except for its obvious age, he begins realize the significance of the catch through observation of its appearance, and the meaning of a few snapped wires and rusted hooks. The story in the poem itself seems rather simple and straightforward, however there are many subtle clues, similes and metaphors in the course of the poem that allude to a greater meaning for both the speaker and the reader.

The poem begins with a fisherman lifting a fish half out of water. The speaker states in a very straightforward, yet disappointed tone:

He didn’t fight.

He hadn’t fought at all.

He hung a grunting weight,

battered and venerable

and homely. (lines 5-9)

The speaker blames his disappointment on the fish. Its lack of fight is interpreted as weakness, physical and in character, and not worth the effort to pull it into the boat. One of the draws of fishing is the feeling of triumph that man feels when overcoming his game, so when the fish succumbs to its fate by not fighting, it has ruined this triumph for the fisherman. It is clear that this is one of the reasons why the fisherman has not immediately pulled the fish into the boat, and instead leaves the fish in a state of limbo, half out of the water beside the boat.

Another factor is the outward appearance of the fish, as the speaker describes the fish as both battered and homely. Even when compared to a rose, an object known for beauty, the speaker describes:

…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. (10-15)

It is obvious that the speaker is disappointed at first description of his ancient catch. The combination of the fish allowing the speaker to reel him in without any fight, and the unattractive physical nature of the fish disappoints both the speaker and, subsequently, the reader through the description.

The author uses many similes and mixed metaphors, like the one above, throughout the poem in significant ways, giving the poem a tone of both sympathy and beauty to an otherwise disgusting fish. In fact, there are six obvious similes in the poem, and each of them compare a description of the fish to an object that is inherently beautiful or heroic, and usually these comparisons are in direct contrast with other lines. An excellent example of this use mixed metaphor is lines 27-28: “I thought of the course white flesh / packed in like feathers,” where the speaker calls the flesh of the fish “course,” in the first line is in direct contrast with the word “feathers” in the following line. Another example is lines 61-62, where the idea of medals and ribbons are described at a contrast to what the reader imagines: “Like medals with their ribbons / frayed and wavering.” The significance of this placement of similes can be traced to the fish, such that the fish is not at first what it seems to be. In fact, the speaker has to take in the whole of the fish before he can understand how these disgusting outer features do not tell the whole story of this venerable fish.

In fact, the fish only seems determined to accept death. In lines 34-44 the speaker describes staring into the eyes of the fish and not recognizing any intelligence or consciousness. It seems the fish as given up, as its eyes “They shifted a little, but not / to return my stare. / —It was more like the tipping / of an object toward the light.” The last line, which begins with a hyphen, almost as an after-thought, tells the reader that the eyes of the fish are like an object heading “toward the light.” This can be seen as the fish succumbing to the inevitability of its death, “toward the light” in the way that near-death experience has been described. This is another example of the fish accepting its inevitable demise at the hands of the speaker, which can be interpreted, by both speaker and reader, in an anti-heroic manner.

It is only when the speaker notices the hooks hanging out of the mouth of the fish that it seems as though the fish made a decision to allow the fisherman to catch him. The speaker notices the condition of the fish:

…then I saw that from his lower lip—

…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. (48, 51-55)

These hooks that are “grown” into the mouth of the fish not only show the determination that this fish had for living, but they are also symbols of past battles, as the speaker refers to them as “medals with their ribbons/frayed and wavering,” but they also signal the wisdom of age, as they are also seen as “a five-haired beard of wisdom/trailing from his aching jaw” (63-64). Suddenly, the fish is deserving of reverence, and even a source of pride: “I stared and stared/and victory filled up/the little rented boat…” (65-67). It is not until this line that the reader realizes the significance of this catch to the speaker, because in a rented boat, this fisherman is one that could be considered an amateur, so by catching this fish the speaker had done what others before him were not capable of. The fish also takes on a mythical quality, and at the close of the poem, when it is the speaker who succumbs, not to death, but to enlightenment.

This poem was written in a free-verse style, and by writing in free verse, the author is free to tell the story of the fish and the fisherman in such a way that is unlimited in its rhymes and rhythms. Free verse is also symbolic: it allows the fish, the fisherman and the author freedom, which is a theme throughout the poem. This style also makes what little rhyme and repetition that the author does use more obvious to the reader, signaling clues to important passages that might be lost if the poem had more meter or rhyme. Repetition, instead of rhyme, becomes the focus of the reader, as there are several points of repetition that play an important role in the transitions of the speaker. In lines 48-49 the speaker repeats the word “lip” twice, both as the last word in the line. This is an important signal in the poem, as it is when the speaker notices the heroic lines hanging from the lip of the fish. It is a change of heart for the speaker, and a transition for the fish from helpless victim, to former hero. Repetition is used again at the second to last line where the word “rainbow” is repeated three times. Again it is a signal of change of heart, as the speaker reaches a climax of realization—an epiphany, which in a chant of “rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!” comes to its fullest extent.

The rainbow that spreads from the oil stain in the boat emerges out of the speaker’s victory and from an epiphany, when the speaker suddenly realizes the significance of the catch. The fish becomes a symbol of something greater: freedom; by capturing the fish the speaker not only strips the fish of its freedom, but captures freedom itself. The fish can be seen as a symbol for freedom, in that the fish has obviously struggled to retain its freedom, as evidenced by the many hooks and wires hanging from its lips, but also by the its surrender. By surrendering to the speaker, the fish forfeits its own freedom, perhaps for the sake of the other younger fish, which alludes to a self-sacrificial generation that gives its own life for the sake of the future: much like those generations that fought wars for freedom. It is this combination of fighting and self-sacrifice that gives the fish the quality of a martyr, and the rainbows that emerge as a result of the speaker’s epiphany are clearly meant to enhance this ethereal perspective. By releasing the fish, the speaker allows freedom back into the world, and the fish becomes an immortal for both speaker and reader.

Works Cited

Bishop, Elizabeth. “The Fish.” The Norton Anthology of modern and Contemporary Poetry, Volume 2, third edition. Editors: Jahan Ramazani, et. al. W.W. Norton and Company, New York and London, 2003. Pages 21-22.