The Fish Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLKMNOPQRS LTUVQSWXYZOKSA2B2QQS C2C2QID2QC2E2E2F2F2D 2B2KQC2DQC2QG2H2C2D2 I2E2QJ2QE2K2UE2C2C2D 2K2K2I caught a tremendous fish | A |
and held him beside the boat | B |
half out of water with my hook | C |
fast in a corner of his mouth | D |
He didn't fight | E |
He hadn't fought at all | F |
He hung a grunting weight | G |
battered and venerable | H |
and homely Here and there | I |
his brown skin hung in strips | J |
like ancient wallpaper | K |
and its pattern of darker brown | L |
was like wallpaper | K |
shapes like full blown roses | M |
stained and lost through age | N |
He was speckled with barnacles | O |
fine rosettes of lime | P |
and infested | Q |
with tiny white sea lice | R |
and underneath two or three | S |
rags of green weed hung down | L |
While his gills were breathing in | T |
the terrible oxygen | U |
the frightening gills | V |
fresh and crisp with blood | Q |
that can cut so badly | S |
I thought of the coarse white flesh | W |
packed in like feathers | X |
the big bones and the little bones | Y |
the dramatic reds and blacks | Z |
of his shiny entrails | O |
and the pink swim bladder | K |
like a big peony | S |
I looked into his eyes | A2 |
which were far larger than mine | B2 |
but shallower and yellowed | Q |
the irises backed and packed | Q |
with tarnished tinfoil | S |
seen through the lenses | C2 |
of old scratched isinglass | C2 |
They shifted a little but not | Q |
to return my stare | I |
It was more like the tipping | D2 |
of an object toward the light | Q |
I admired his sullen face | C2 |
the mechanism of his jaw | E2 |
and then I saw | E2 |
that from his lower lip | F2 |
if you could call it a lip | F2 |
grim wet and weaponlike | D2 |
hung five old pieces of fish line | B2 |
or four and a wire leader | K |
with the swivel still attached | Q |
with all their five big hooks | C2 |
grown firmly in his mouth | D |
A green line frayed at the end | Q |
where he broke it two heavier lines | C2 |
and a fine black thread | Q |
still crimped from the strain and snap | G2 |
when it broke and he got away | H2 |
Like medals with their ribbons | C2 |
frayed and wavering | D2 |
a five haired beard of wisdom | I2 |
trailing from his aching jaw | E2 |
I stared and stared | Q |
and victory filled up | J2 |
the little rented boat | Q |
from the pool of bilge | E2 |
where oil had spread a rainbow | K2 |
around the rusted engine | U |
to the bailer rusted orange | E2 |
the sun cracked thwarts | C2 |
the oarlocks on their strings | C2 |
the gunnels until everything | D2 |
was rainbow rainbow rainbow | K2 |
And I let the fish go | K2 |
Elizabeth Bishop
(2)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Fish poem by Elizabeth Bishop
Best Poems of Elizabeth Bishop