At The Fishhouses Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Although it is a cold evening	A
down by one of the fishhouses	B
an old man sits netting	A
his net in the gloaming almost invisible	C
a dark purple brown	D
and his shuttle worn and polished	E
The air smells so strong of codfish	F
it makes one's nose run and one's eyes water	G
The five fishhouses have steeply peaked roofs	B
and narrow cleated gangplanks slant up	H
to storerooms in the gables	B
for the wheelbarrows to be pushed up and down on	I
All is silver the heavy surface of the sea	B
swelling slowly as if considering spilling over	G
is opaque but the silver of the benches	B
the lobster pots and masts scattered	J
among the wild jagged rocks	B
is of an apparent translucence	B
like the small old buildings with an emerald moss	B
growing on their shoreward walls	B
The big fish tubs are completely lined	K
with layers of beautiful herring scales	B
and the wheelbarrows are similarly plastered	J
with creamy iridescent coats of mail	L
with small iridescent flies crawling on them	M
Up on the little slope behind the houses	B
set in the sparse bright sprinkle of grass	B
is an ancient wooden capstan	N
cracked with two long bleached handles	B
and some melancholy stains like dried blood	O
where the ironwork has rusted	O
The old man accepts a Lucky Strike	P
He was a friend of my grandfather	G
We talk of the decline in the population	N
and of codfish and herring	A
while he waits for a herring boat to come in	Q
There are sequins on his vest and on his thumb	R
He has scraped the scales the principal beauty	B
from unnumbered fish with that black old knife	S
the blade of which is almost worn away	T
	-
Down at the water's edge at the place	B
where they haul up the boats up the long ramp	U
descending into the water thin silver	G
tree trunks are laid horizontally	B
across the gray stones down and down	D
at intervals of four or five feet	V
	-
Cold dark deep and absolutely clear	W
element bearable to no mortal	C
to fish and to seals One seal particularly	B
I have seen here evening after evening	A
He was curious about me He was interested in music	X
like me a believer in total immersion	N
so I used to sing him Baptist hymns	B
I also sang quot A Mighty Fortress Is Our God quot	V
He stood up in the water and regarded me	B
steadily moving his head a little	C
Then he would disappear then suddenly emerge	Y
almost in the same spot with a sort of shrug	Z
as if it were against his better judgment	V
Cold dark deep and absolutely clear	W
the clear gray icy water Back behind us	B
the dignified tall firs begin	Q
Bluish associating with their shadows	B
a million Christmas trees stand	V
waiting for Christmas The water seems suspended	V
above the rounded gray and blue gray stones	B
I have seen it over and over the same sea the same	A2
slightly indifferently swinging above the stones	B
icily free above the stones	B
above the stones and then the world	V
If you should dip your hand in	Q
your wrist would ache immediately	B
your bones would begin to ache and your hand would burn	B2
as if the water were a transmutation of fire	G
that feeds on stones and burns with a dark gray flame	A2
If you tasted it it would first taste bitter	G
then briny then surely burn your tongue	C2
It is like what we imagine knowledge to be	B
dark salt clear moving utterly free	B
drawn from the cold hard mouth	D2
of the world derived from the rocky breasts	B
forever flowing and drawn and since	B
our knowledge is historical flowing and flown	E2

Elizabeth Bishop

At The Fishhouses Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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