The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop

Gone Fishing

Fishing has been a sport that humans have enjoyed for centuries. Sometimes, a fish can even tell a story. In "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop, the narrator describes what seems to be an ordinary fish that the fisherman has caught until the fish is reeled into the boat. The fisherman begins to look over the catch of the day and notices distinct oddities. A story of the fish's life is analyzed by examining the parts of the fish that show evidence that it has lived a difficult life. Bishop accomplishes this substantiation by using imagery, similes, metaphors and very little repetition by giving the reader a distinctive vision of the fish as well as the thoughts of the fisherman and by allowing the fish to continue its journey.

"The Fish" is full of imagery from beginning to end. Imagery is a group of images that help us to visualize what the story is describing. Bishop's use of imagery while describing the looks of the gills is outstanding: "--the frightening gills, fresh and crisp with blood, that can cut so badly--" (Bishop lines 24-26). Without imagery this poem would not have the connotation that it does nor would it be as memorable. Bishop describes the fish's mouth in such detail that you can see the fishing line, hooks, and teeth: "if you could call it a lip, grim, wet, and weaponlike, hung five old pieces of fish-line, or four and a wire leader with a swivel still attached, with all their five big hooks grown firmly in his mouth" (Bishop lines 49-55). Having personal experiences with fishing, one has seen fish with holes in their mouths, monofilament line hanging out of it's mouth and an entire lure has even been pulled from a large mouth bass: "Like medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering a five-haired beard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw" (Bishop lines 61-64). The larger fish have scars from the battle with man and his fishing rod. You always hear of the "one" that got away but it's a sweet, sweet feeling when the fisherman pulls in the lunker that someone else has lost.

Bishop uses similes, a similarity of two things by describing them with "like" or "as" in her poem, While describing the looks of the fish's skin, the writer states, "Here and there his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper, and its pattern of darker brown was like wallpaper: shapes like full-brown roses stained and lost through age" (Bishop lines 9-15). The use of similes combined with imagery is intriguing throughout her poem. The uniqueness empowered my vision of what was happening. Another description of the fish's worn skin would be, "I thought of the coarse white flesh packed in like feathers" (Bishop lines 27-28). One of the best similes in this poem is when the author describes the internal flotation device of a fish, "....and