English and American Poetry I Analysis “The Fish”

ANALYSIS ON 'THE FISH'

The poem was written by Marianne Moore in 1918 and published for the first time, that year, in The
Egoist –a magazine edited by T.S. Eliot and herself. This version consisted of only 32 lines arranged
into 8 four-line stanzas.

Then, in 1919, 'The Fish' was republished in a collection entitled Others for 1919. An Anthology of
the New Verse. In this version, Moore changed the stanzas into the indention pattern we know
today. A new version appeared in Moore's first collection of poetry, entitled Poems, in 1921, edited
by H.D. and published in London; in this version capitalization was kept at the beginning of every
line.

The complete and definite version, as we have read it today, was eventually published in Moore's
second collection –Observations- in 1924. The edition of the volume was under Moore's total control
and granted her the prestigious Dial Prize. Since then, it is regarded as one of the best examples of
Modernist poetry.

Although it may seem obvious in a first impression, the poem is not about fish at all. Moore
describes the relationship between a seaside cliff, sea life and the sea itself; the sunlight acts upon
the sea creatures and the sea acts upon a cliff.

So, by using images, Moore's theme of ‘The Fish' is the paradoxical fertility and abundance of life
along with the existence of starkness and death; that is, the process of life and death which is
evident everywhere as part of Nature.

The voice of the poem is neutral. We cannot assert categorically that Moore herself is the speaker of
her poem since there is no evidence of any personal nor biographical data in it. Besides, there is not
even trace at all of a personal speaker since there is no first-person pronoun nor an addressee.

As a consequence of this impersonal presence of a speaker, the tone seems to be declarative and
didactic, showing an observer's attitude of quiet reflection and calm in spite of the grim reality it
shows.

As regards the metrical pattern of 'The Fish', it consists of eight stanzas of five-lines. Each line has 1,
3, 9, 6 and 8 syllables respectively. So, the poem has no regular rhythm but syllabic.

There is a definite aabbc rhyme pattern. The regularity of the rhyme scheme mirrors the crest (aa)
and fall (bb) of a wave. The fifth line of the stanza (c) has enjambment with the next stanza,
indicating the cyclical and connected nature of the sea.

The type of rhyme is generally end rhyme, but it turns to slant and eye rhyme as it happens in lines
13-14 ('swiftness/crevices'), lines 16-17 ('the/sea') or lines 36-37 ('dead/repeated'). This rhyme
scheme is reflected in the poem's typesetting, with the rhymes being indented. This is what creates
the physical image of a wave on print, particularly as it is repeated in every stanza. Indentation by
definition can also refer to notches in the coastline or carvings in rock; both of these images are
found in the poem.

Although 'The Fish' relies mostly on image, thus appealing the sense of sight, sound is also
considerably present in the poem –assonance, alliteration and consonance are devices which
dominate the lines. As the second stanza carries over to the third and the third to the fourth, the /s/
sound is repeated suggesting the rush of the sea, as it also happens with assonance in the repetition
of sound /i/ and /o/. The /f/ sound in the sixth stanza suggests the violence of the process it

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English and American Poetry I Analysis “The Fish”

describes. In the seventh stanza, /k/ sound gives the poem's final part a hacked and chopped sound
as well as a choppy appearance.

The management of syntax in 'The Fish' adds a powerful meaning to it. The poem comprises seven
sentences:

1. 'The fish (title) ...jade' (3)

2. 'Of the crow-blue (4) ...injured fan' (7)

3. 'The barnacles (8) ...of bodies' (18)

4. 'The water (18) ...other' (25)

5. 'All external (26) ...dead' (36)

6. 'Repeated (37) ...its youth' (40)

7. 'The sea grows old in it' (40)

Except for sentences 2, 4 & 5 which include subordinated clauses (so their structure is hypotaxis) the
rest of the sentences organize in parataxis. Enjambment is one important element of the disposition
of the lines in this poem, since its meaning depends directly on reading the lines as 'waves', as critic
Jerrald Ranta acknowledges: '[…] to read the poem properly is –among other things- a matter of
recognizing and accounting for the sentences as wave. In that sense, the whole poem is a process of
wave-building, wave-impacting, and wave-diminishing, which should not be ignored'.

The almost constant juxtaposition of phrases (noun, adjective, prepositional) is another important
feature of the syntax of 'The Fish', not only because it contributes to the clarity of its lines, but also
because it is one of the most important formal characteristics of American Imagism.

Diction in 'The Fish' allows the images needed to understand the poem to be created in the mind of
the reader. Concrete rather than abstract words are present in 'The Fish' allowing the reader to
understand all of the subjects being discussed; therefore, the mind is driven to visualize all of the
images without wondering if it is correct.

Moore chooses descriptive words throughout the poem and gives many examples when discussing
the life in the sea and the destruction which produces life at the same time. These examples enable
the reader to create better, more valid pictures in his or her own mind.

The first stanza, as well as the first sentence of the poem, opens with the title. The metaphor 'black
jade' immerses reader directly in the environment the poem starts creating. These words are
significant because they suggest a heaviness and slowness to the fish's movement. Jade is opaque
and is not naturally associated with water. The darkness of the water underlines the mysteriousness
of the sea.

The second sentence starts in line 3 (the longest in the stanza) with hyperbaton, and of the few
found in the poem. Moore focuses in a single shell, directing readers' minds to the image and
suggesting how the movement of the smallest thing can have an effect on the larger world.

The first stanza finishes with the introduction of a simile ('like an injured fan') which runs on the
beginning of the second stanza by means of enjambment, thus concluding the second complete
sentence of the poem. The second part of the stanza opens the third sentence of the poem by using
personification; Moore focuses on the sea, pointing out the vulnerability of barnacles. By writing

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English and American Poetry I Analysis “The Fish”

that they 'cannot hide', Moore humanizes these underwater creatures. Line 10 in the second stanza
opens the subordinate phrase ('for the submerged shafts of the sun...') of the main sentence, and
runs on the third stanza.

The simile created in lines 12-13 ('like spun glass') suggests the transparency of the sea water, which
is accompanied by an appeal to the sound of hearing with the presence of consonance and
alliteration of /s/, thus creating a synesthetic effect.

Stanza #4 starts with the second part of the subordinate sentence which picks up from the last line
of the preceding stanza. The adjective ('turquoise') qualifies the colour of the sea, Moore makes the
mind of the reader focus on the image of the water illuminated by the sunlight.

The fourth sentence of the poem –starting in line 18- again personifies the water as it 'drives', and is
followed by an antistrophe with repetition of 'iron' (line 19). Iron is meant both figuratively and
literally. Figuratively, it suggests the power of the waves; literally, it describes the iron deposits on
the cliff. Moore mixes again two images: the transparency of the water with the heaviness of iron.

The fourth sentence of the poem finishes in the fifth stanza. Qualifying adjectives on colours ('pink',
'green') are again involved in the description of the sea life ('stars', 'jelly-fish', 'crabs', 'toadstools')
and mark the stanza as the visual centre of the poem.
The speaker describes sea life here as land life – lilies, toadstools, grains, rice. Her precise description
of these animals highlights the sea's fecundity, by also having assonance (/o/, /i/) support this animal
activity. The stanza finishes with period, this way showing how Moore distributes her sentences in
the first part of her poem (five stanzas) and resembling sea life and movement with enjambment and
line indention.

The sixth stanza opens with a different tone –this time the speaker changes to amore reflexive
attitude since vivid and colourful descriptions of sea life diminish. The 'abuse' (line 28) comes from
the waves' repeated striking of the cliff. However, the cliff is personified and metaphorized as a
'defiant edifice', meaning that it stands up in the face of such abuse. The alliteration and consonance
of sound /f/ supports the cliff's attitude.

In the seventh stanza, by making the first syllable of 'accident' the first line, Moore sticks with the
syllabic pattern she has established for the poem. The break also underlines the idea of an accident
(in which something is broken). The list of 'the physical features of /ac-/cident' are graphic. The
violence of the marks (underlined with consonance of /k/) also denotes human, as opposed to
natural, action. Diction in lines 33-34 ('hatchet strokes', 'burns' and 'dynamite grooves') all point to
things done to the cliff by human beings, never explicitly mentioned in the poem.

By having the word 'dead' isolated as the first line of the eighth and last stanza, Moore highlights the
violent effect of human action on nature. The final paradox created in lines 38-40 ('can live on what
cannot revive its youth') has been profusely commented by critics as enigmatic –the 'chasm side' of
the cliff is 'dead', suggesting that it might not contain sea life. However, it continues to live, evidence
of its power to endure with little sustenance.

The shortest and last sentence of the poem, closes the stanza by both personifying again the sea life
as it continues to live, evidence of its power to endure with little sustenance.

Moore's masterful poem achieves to convey readers the intellectual emotion that her images
create. By having also her lines and enjambment serve graphically to enhance the sea movement,
the poetess shows her powerful and artful way to take Imagism to its best.

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Critic Pamela White Hadas sees in 'The Fish' an allegory that Moore wrote to understand her own
life's story: 'This strange poem is the work of a thirty-year-old woman whose rather unnervingly cool
sympathies lie with a battered and violated nature. It is a poem about injury of wholeness, resentful
but resigned deprivation.' Moore's attempt to understand herself and her relationship to the natural
world.