“The Fish” Summary

“The Fish” Themes

• 

  Humanity vs. Nature's Permanence

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• 

  The Sea's Beauty, Violence, and Power

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• 

  Change and Stasis

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Fish”

• Lines 1-2

  wade
  through black jade.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-7

   Of the crow-blue mussel-shells, one keeps
         adjusting the ash-heaps;
                opening and shutting itself like
  an
  injured fan.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 8-11

   The barnacles which encrust the side
         of the wave, cannot hide
                there for the submerged shafts of the
  sun,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 12-14

  split like spun
         glass, move themselves with spotlight swiftness
         into the crevices—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 15-18

    in and out, illuminating
  the
  turquoise sea
         of bodies.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 18-20

  The water drives a wedge
         of iron through the iron edge
                of the cliff;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 20-25

  whereupon the stars,
  pink
  rice-grains, ink-
         bespattered jelly fish, crabs like green
         lilies, and submarine
                toadstools, slide each on the other.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 26-32

  All
  external
         marks of abuse are present on this
         defiant edifice—
                all the physical features of
  ac-
  cident—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 32-36

  lack
         of cornice, dynamite grooves, burns, and
         hatchet strokes, these things stand
                out on it; the chasm-side is
  dead.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 37-40

  Repeated
         evidence has proved that it can live
         on what can not revive
                its youth. The sea grows old in it.

  

  

  

  

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“The Fish” Symbols

• 

  The Sea

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“The Fish” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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“The Fish” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Wade
• Jade
• Ash-heaps
• Encrust
• Submerged
• Spun glass
• Crevices
• Whereupon
• Bespattered
• Submarine
• Toadstools
• Edifice
• Cornice
• Hatchet
• Chasm
• Revive

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Fish”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“The Fish” Speaker

“The Fish” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “The Fish”

More “The Fish” Resources

• External Resources

  • More about Marianne Moore — Read a short biography of Moore.

  • Climate Scientists and Poets Discuss "The Fish" — Listen to a multidisciplinary conversation about this poem that explores both its environmental and its artistic significance.

  • Marianne Moore's Notebooks — Explore digitized versions of Moore's notebooks.

  • Moore's Legacy — Read an article from the Pulitzer organization honoring Moore (who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1952).

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Marianne Moore

  • Poetry