Analysis of Marianne Moore’s “The Fish”

Analysis of Marianne Moore’s “The Fish”

Marianne Moore’s poem “The Fish” illustrates the multifaceted expanse that is the ocean itself, and takes readers on a journey through her vision of the literal and figurative depths of the sea. From diction and tone to rhythm and imagery, Moore combines several literary elements to create a truly vivid image of life existing under the sea. Furthermore, critics consider “The Fish” to be a cornerstone of Imagist poetry. Upon further investigation of Amy Lowell’s listing of the Imagist Criteria, it is clear that “The Fish” is truly a piece of modern imagist poetry.

At first glance, there are many factors about the poem, “The Fish” that stands out to its readers. The poem’s unique form, the repeating syllabic pattern, and the flowing rhyme scheme are all distinctive parts of this poem. However, readers may consider the poem’s title to be most noteworthy. Readers may have the impression that the poem will delve into a depiction of a literal fish, based on the title of the poem. However, there is no mention of the fish beyond the poem’s introductory line, “The Fish / wade / through black jade”. It seems as though this introductory mentioning of the fish serves to set the scene for the remainder of the poem that beautifully details everything, besides the fish, that resides under the water.

A striking portion of the poem arrives at its end when Moore describes the sea as if it’s alive: “All / external / marks of abuse are present on this / defiant edifice— / all the physical features of // ac / cident—lack / of cornice, dynamite grooves, burns, and / hatchet strokes, these things stand / out on it; the chasm-side is // dead. / Repeated / evidence has proved that it can live / on what can not revive / its youth.

It is unclear exactly what Moore is referring to when she writes about “this defiant edifice”. Nevertheless, it seems important to investigate this portion of the poem further, to gain a deeper understanding of its context. One interpretation of the word “edifice” is that the term refers to the sea, the actual water itself. However, this explanation begins to break down when one considers that “edifice” typically refers to a sort of building, or a man-made, physical prominence. Another interpretation of this first stanza of the excerpt is that “edifice” refers to the entire ecosystem at hand. Including the water, the barnacles, and the crow-blue mussel shells, all referenced earlier in the poem. One may not consider this “edifice” as man-made, in the sense that it was constructed by human hands. However, one can consider it “man-made”, as a result of the significance man has ascribed to it, making it a figurative edifice, rather than a literal one. The “external marks of abuse”, the “dynamite grooves” and “hatchet strokes”, then, can also be man-made, the negative result of humans’ interaction with their environment.

To further study the literary tools used in Moore’s poem, readers can analyze the effect sentence structure has on the information being delivered to them. Throughout the poem Moore writes in complete sentences of varying lengths. Typically, shorter sentences are used to captivate the reader’s attention as well as to create some level of tension in the piece. In contrast, longer sentences lend themselves to the formation of vivid imagery. When reading the stanzas from the excerpt above, it becomes clear that Moore uses both of these writing styles to her advantage. The long sentences create a striking image of the “marks of abuse” on the “defiant edifice”. This use of longer sentences is not specific to this stanza of the poem but repeats itself throughout providing readers with deeper images of the scene at hand. Moore also uses strategic line breaks, by way of her unique poem form to evoke certain effects in the mind of the reader.

The varying quality of the sentence structure mimics the duality of the waves of the ocean. The short sentence break exemplifies the short nature of some waves that dissipate before making it to the shore or even the short lifespan of those that do crash upon the coast. On the other hand, the long sentences mark another defining feature of the ocean, the movement of the waves that are both continuous and seemingly infinite. This combination exposes readers to the duality of the ocean and may provide an “ocean-like” effect when reading it.

According to Amy Lowell, there is a short list of attributes, that all modern imagist poetry tends to have in common. Marianne Moore’s poem, “The Fish”, seems to lend itself quite well to each of these six tenets. One tenet that stands out is the second one in which Lowell states that imagist poetry “create[s] new rhythms - as the expression of new moods”. The manner in which Moore accomplishes this is two-fold. First, the form of Moore’s poem is new, and unique to her writing, as it mimics the actual shape of the waves as they approach the shore. Additionally, the poems rhyme scheme melds into its structure, bolstering the meaning derived from it.

Word Count: 845