The poem, “The Fish”, was written by Marianne Moore in 1918, but then published in public by 1921. This poem has a very ironic title since it is not about a fish, but about the ocean life. Moore has created this poem to give an explicit visual description to the readers. It is an Imagist poem that gives us a visualization about the ocean’s creatures, the ocean, but overall the cycle of life. According to Lowell’s rules on Imagist, a poem has to present an imagine, and that is what Moore wanted to do when creating this poem. The poem has very unique form of lines, making the lines in the shape of tides. This will be a syllabic verse she uses in her poem, so it can mimic the shape of the tides. The tides the ocean makes when touching the sand. The form of lines has a connection with the poem, since that is what it will be about, but also it wants the readers to visualize the ocean and the tides along when reading it. The rhyme schemes of the poem are very natural, but her rhymes are a little forced. The sentence rhythm is short and a little choppy, because you can read some of the ending rhymes with force.
Marianne Moore ends the poem with a very fascinating finish. “ Repeated evidence has proved that it can only live what can not revive its youth. The sea grows old with it.” In the beginning it starts with the word (“repeated”). Repeated is an important word in the sentence, because it represents the cliffs cycle of life that it has along with the ocean. It’s life recurs again and again everyday, repeating the same lifestyle, which is the ocean colliding with the side of the cliff. Then it starts off by saying, “It can live what can not revive its youth,” this means that after the ocean’s destruction it makes, when colliding with the cliff, the cliff is still living, but being torn apart with the many times the ocean has collided with the cliff. It can still live, but it can not go back to the same form it had in the very beginning. Lastly, it ends with ( “the sea grows old with it”), this sentence means exactly what it says, the ocean is growing old along with the cliff. The cliff will last forever until its parts are fully torn apart and have fallen, but until now it is living and growing old with the ocean.
The poem itself has many different meanings, but the word that may have various of meanings is the word “it”. I know it can be a very simple word that may appear to only have one meaning to it, but in reality it has a lot of meanings. At the end of the poem it says, “ it can live on what can not revive its youth,” but also, “ the sea grows old in it.” So, what exactly is this it? Some may believe it can be the ocean’s creatures, the ecosystem, and other ideas, but looking back to the whole poem, it seems like this it can be a cliff. The cliff living besides the ocean, and experiencing the abuses from the ocean when it collides with it.
The author appears to have avoided giving out what the poem really is about. It seems like she wanted her readers to think and visualize the different scenarios that is happening within the poem. It is clear that it is not about a fish because of the title, but about the ocean. The poem is targeting one main key idea that the author hasn’t really clearly brought out, but gave out ideas. She leaves her readers thinking on what can possibly the author is talking about. It can either be the ocean’s ecosystem, the human interaction with the ocean, or a cliff. In my defense, it is a cliff that she is talking about. In the rest of her poem, Moore gives out ideas on how it can be a cliff. With barnacles living on the side, the abuse the ocean gives it, but lastly the sea growing old with it. It couldn’t be that it can be the ecosystem because after the creatures die they are completely gone. The plants can die as well, but the cliff can last for a very long time until it has been abused for various of years, and all the parts of the cliff has fallen off.
The strongest quality of your post was your integration of quotes within your analysis, which allowed the paragraphs to flow easily between each new thought you introduced. I really liked the assertions you made in the final paragraph, and I honestly think your paper could benefit from having more confidence in your argument! Maybe for next time, introduce your post with a brief reflection of what you intend to discuss within your analysis, which might help guide your adherence to a central claim throughout the piece. Aside from that, I think you did a good job of identifying the structural choices employed by Moore, as you mentioned within your first paragraph, as well as the connections you made regarding the relationship between the tide pool and oceanic ecosystems.
ReplyDeleteCristal,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your interpretation of “The Fish,” and I think you had some very interesting analyses of Moore’s writing. My favorite aspect of your post was how deeply you delved into each quotation. I think that knowing exactly how much explanation and analysis you need to give for each piece of information you use can be a very useful skill. One thing that I think could improve this post is cutting out some unnecessary and redundant words. For instance, in your first sentence you say that the poem was “published in public in 1921.” Simply stating that the poem was “published in 1921” would help with clarity and concision.