Question

THE FISH I caught a tremendous fish and held him beside the boat half out of water, with my hook fast in a corner of his mouth. He didn't fight. He hadn't fought at all. He hung a grunting weight, battered and venerable and homely. Here and there 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. He was speckled with barnacles, fine rosettes of lime, and infested with tiny white sea-lice, and underneath two or three rags of green weed hung down. While his gills were breathing in the terrible oxygen - the frightening gills, fresh and crisp with blood, that can cut so badly- I thought of the coarse white flesh packed in like feathers, the big bones and the little bones, the dramatic reds and blacks of his shiny entrails, and the pink swim-bladder like a big peony. 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. They shifted a little, but not to return my stare. - It was more like the tipping of an object toward the light. I admired his sullen face, the mechanism of his jaw, and then I saw that from his lower lip - 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 the swivel still attached, with all their five big hooks grown firmly in his mouth. A green line, frayed at the end where he broke it, two heavier lines, and a fine black thread still crimped from the strain and snap when it broke and he got away. Like medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering, a five-haired beard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw. I stared and stared and victory filled up the little-rented boat, from the pool of bilge where oil had spread a rainbow around the rusted engine to the bailer rusted orange, the sun-cracked thwarts, the oarlocks on their strings, the gunnels- until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And I let the fish go. Questions on Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish” 1. Define the following words: venerable, barnacles, rosettes, sea-lice, entrails, peony, irises, isinglass, sullen, grim, swivel, fray, bilge, thwarts, oarlock, gunnels. 2. What is the subject of the poem and who is the speaker? 3. Find all of the similes (a comparison of two things using the words “like” or “as”) in the poem. Which of them, in your opinion, is the strongest and why? 4. Explain the following image: “Like medals with their ribbons/ frayed and wavering,/ a five-haired beard of wisdom/ trailing from his aching jaw.” What does she mean by “a five-haired beard of wisdom?” Why do you think Bishop chose to use the word “medals?” 5. Track Bishop’s use of color in the poem. Find the instances where she mentions specific colors. Why do you think that Bishop writes, “until everything/ was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!” towards the end of the poem? 6. Bishop repeats words and phrases throughout the poem. Choose and instance where she uses repetition and explain how it contributes to the poem. 7. Explain the tone (the speaker’s attitude about the subject matter) of the poem. Use evidence from the poem to support your answer 8. What, in your thinking, is the strongest aspect of this poem? Do you like the poem? Why or why not? 9. Fill in the outline of a fish with 15 details from the poem. Please label each of the details. Feel free to add to the area around the fish.

Answer 1

1. Defining the terms used in the poem:

venerable- given a great deal of respect because of age or character.

barnacles- used as a simile to describe a tenacious person or thing

rosettes- a rose shaped decoration awarded as a prize

sea-lice- parasites that feed on the host marine fish

entrails- exposed internal organs especially intestines

peony- a flowering plant that gives white, or rosy pink fluffy flowers commonly used as a traditional flower in a bridal bouquet because they confer the idea of prosperity and long life.

irises- a perennial flowering plant that bears showy violet coloured flowers.

isinglass- a gelatin obtained from fish which is used in making jellies and glue

sullen- sulky or depressed

grim- very gloomy mood

swivel- to turn around a point or axis without moving the other point

fray- worning out of a fabric at the edge due to constant ribbing

bilge- the area on the outer surface of a ship’s hull; a nonsense idea

thwarts- prevent something from being accomplished; a structure in a boat which forms a seat for the rower.

oarlock- a rowlock or a U-shaped hole on each side of a rowing boat in which the oars are held.

gunnels- an elongated slimy eellike compressed fish found in the Atlantic waters of the northern hemisphere