The Fish
Diana Lachhman
Prof. L. Reesman
Eng-102
3 June 2013
The Fish Marianne Moore’s “The Fish” uses imagery to present the animated picture of sea life using colors and shapes to grasp the reader’s attention of the ocean. The poem relates to interactions between the animals and their environment. The poem reminded me of the movie, “Shark Tale”, where all the creatures and colors formed the big picture of the movie. While the movie is something we can see, the poem gives such detailed illustrations it almost like snapshot of the ocean. The poem had one noticeable feature, which is the way it is written. It is formed in syllabic verse lines where the last words rhyme are grouped together by indentations. It’s like the sentences are being pushed and pulled through a symbolic movement. Just like waves in the sea or ocean. The word indentation means; a recess in a surface grooves (cited Merriam-Webster dictionary). In the seventh stanza it has a description of “grooves” in which Moore is describing a damaged cliff. Some the words get cut off and continue with a line giving the reader more of sense of thought. Which, the poem is not about a fish but about life and death. I feel like Moore intentionally wrote her poem this way because she wanted her readers to actually engage into reading the poem the way it’s aligned. Another, noticeable poetic device that was used was a couple of enjambments. The line breakage created an interesting input for the poem. All the lines interact so as the reader you couldn’t read one without the other. The stanzas connection resonates throughout the poem just like the ocean it’s connected because it’s one big body of water that stays together. Just like the format of the poem which stay together but waved out like an ocean. The poem speaks about different animals that live in the same environment and how they interact with each other. Moore used bold words like “burns”, “hatchet strokes” and “abuse”. The cliff is the damaging
Prof. L. Reesman
Eng-102
3 June 2013
The Fish Marianne Moore’s “The Fish” uses imagery to present the animated picture of sea life using colors and shapes to grasp the reader’s attention of the ocean. The poem relates to interactions between the animals and their environment. The poem reminded me of the movie, “Shark Tale”, where all the creatures and colors formed the big picture of the movie. While the movie is something we can see, the poem gives such detailed illustrations it almost like snapshot of the ocean. The poem had one noticeable feature, which is the way it is written. It is formed in syllabic verse lines where the last words rhyme are grouped together by indentations. It’s like the sentences are being pushed and pulled through a symbolic movement. Just like waves in the sea or ocean. The word indentation means; a recess in a surface grooves (cited Merriam-Webster dictionary). In the seventh stanza it has a description of “grooves” in which Moore is describing a damaged cliff. Some the words get cut off and continue with a line giving the reader more of sense of thought. Which, the poem is not about a fish but about life and death. I feel like Moore intentionally wrote her poem this way because she wanted her readers to actually engage into reading the poem the way it’s aligned. Another, noticeable poetic device that was used was a couple of enjambments. The line breakage created an interesting input for the poem. All the lines interact so as the reader you couldn’t read one without the other. The stanzas connection resonates throughout the poem just like the ocean it’s connected because it’s one big body of water that stays together. Just like the format of the poem which stay together but waved out like an ocean. The poem speaks about different animals that live in the same environment and how they interact with each other. Moore used bold words like “burns”, “hatchet strokes” and “abuse”. The cliff is the damaging