Close Reading of Marianne Moore's "The Fish"

           The sentence that I chose to do a close reading of begins on line 18 and ends on line 25 of Marianne Moore’s poem “The Fish.” “The water drives a wedge / of iron through the iron edge / of the cliff; whereupon the stars, / pink / rice-grains, ink- / bespattered jelly fish, crabs like green / lilies, and submarine / toadstools, slide each on the other.” The first thing I noticed is that the use of “wedge” (18) and “edge” (19) as the final words of two consecutive lines is a method of ensuring that the form of the poem matches the content. In the same moment that the speaker references the water driving “a wedge / of iron through…the cliff” (19-20), Moore provides the reader with a visual wedge in the form of a line break. Moore also drives wedges into individual words with her use of hyphens in words such as “rice-grains” (22) and “ink- / bespattered” (22-23). In addition to this syntactical structure, the stanzas of the poem follow a distinct visual organization; each has five lines which increase incrementally in size before being slightly cut down in length at the fourth line and slightly increasing again at the fifth. This structure leads to many short and choppy lines that could be meant to mirror the ebb and flow of the water of the ocean. The repetitive nature of the choppiness in both syntax and word choice creates an interesting sort of juxtaposition within the poem. While the short line length indicates quick movement and a sense of rapid change, the repetitiveness of the structure of the stanzas indicates a more cyclical nature. This contradictory experience of time would support the a reading in which the subject of the poem is a tide pool because the overall inner ecosystem of the tide pool will continue on although some organisms that reside in it may live fleeting lives. One can even use this reading of the poem to understand the final enigmatic thought that Moore ends the poem with: “it can live / on what can not revive / its youth” (38-40). The “it” in this instance would reference the tide pool itself, and the thing that “can not revive / its youth” (39-40) is the passage of time. While certain organisms will inevitably die, many of them will continue the life cycle of the tide pool through leaving some sort of offspring behind. Thus, the way that the poem ebbs and flows like water could be indicative of the continuing life cycle of the tide pool even in the face of human interference that can drive wedges into the harmonious ecosystem.

            The imagery in my chosen sentence also elucidates the idea of the tide pool. Moore describes how the different images all “slide each on the other” (25), which could indicate the slight distortions and ripples that water makes when it is not stagnant. The speaker of the poem could also be seeing some reflection on the surface of the water from “the stars” (20) that could make it difficult to see the “ink- / bespattered jelly fish, crabs like green / lilies, and submarine / toadstools” (22-25). The reference to the different organisms sliding “each on the other” (25) could be a reference to the waves or currents of the ocean that push and pull things, which could create the sort of sliding effect that the speaker references. It is also interesting to note that jellyfish are not usually found in tide pools, so that could point one towards a more metaphorical interpretation of the imagery; perhaps this aspect of the sentence is a description of the ocean itself in an effort to make a comparison between that enormous oceanic ecosystem and the comparatively small ecosystem of a tide pool.

            Another aspect of my chosen sentence is the structured yet still flexible rhyme scheme. The first four lines of each stanza consist of two rhyming couplets while the last line is unrhymed. Moore also has to play with the structure of certain words in order to follow her own established rhyme scheme such as with the phrase “pink / rice-grains, ink- / bespattered jelly fish” (21-23). This loosens the tightly structured rhyme scheme and allows Moore a bit more room to play with the overall form of the poetry. Additionally, the rhyme scheme acts much in the same way that the physical form of the poem does. It draws the reader’s attention back to the ends of the lines, and causes a certain expectation that these established standards will be fulfilled. However, this sort of expectation is broken in the fifth line of every stanza at the same time that the rhyme scheme is broken. This sort of irregularity and unreliable rhyme could be an attempt to capture the irregularity and unreliable nature of the ocean. The physical form and structure of the poem point to the idea that the poem is making a claim about the nature of the ocean. Perhaps the claim is that the ocean can withstand even humanity’s brutal invasion as Moore states that “all / external / marks of abuse are present” (26-28) later in the poem. This in conjunction with the imagery of lines 20-25 indicates that the author may be using the subject of the tide pool as a metaphor in order to make the claim that the ocean is essentially a larger and more mysterious version of a tide pool. The ecosystem of a tide pool is more easily and clearly seen with the naked eye because of its small scale, and thus the comparison between tide pool and ocean serves to illuminate the ecosystem of the ocean in a more easily palatable and comprehensible way.

Word Count: 960