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

Close reading of, "The Fish," by Marianne Moore

  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.

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

J. Alfred Prufrock and Blonde

J. Alfred Prufrock and Blonde

T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” offers a narrative of anxieties of a modern world. The speaker offers readers their thoughts on love, women and the ennui which underlines the emerging societal experience of the early 20th century. The realities of western culture of the past few hundreds of years have shifted. All of a sudden identities have been lost and everyone, especially the youth, is spiraling to find some ground to settle on. These feelings, of unease and anxiety, are equally expressed in Frank Ocean’s 2016 album Blonde. Though Ocean is not writing in the wake of a devastating war, he writes Blonde as a response to the violence of his teenage years, exploring the same themes of anxiety, ennui and, love which Eliot writes of as well in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

“The Love Song…” opens as the narrator offers a hand to both their friend and the reader on this journey through the evening, a journey driven under the haze of drugs, “Like a patient etherized upon a table; / Let us go” (3-4). As the narrator opens the poem drugs are made an important element in dealing with life in contemporary society. Under the haze of drugs is the only way to deal with the yellow haze of the late London. Similarly, in Blonde Frank Ocean makes dozens of references to drug use as a result of various means, but more often than not as a form of coping of anxieties of modern living. This is most aptly heard in “Solo”. In the opening line, Ocean sings, “Hand me a towel, I’m dirty dancing by myself / Gone off tabs, of that acid” (Ocean). Further, in the song, we also get, “I brought trees to blow through, but it's just me and no you /

Stayed up 'til my phone died, smoking big, rolling solo” (Ocean). Drugs in both “The Love Song…” and Blonde have a dual force to both the narrator of the poem and for the younger version of Frank Ocean which the narrative of the album is told through. Drugs serve both the numb and to inspire, as the dramatic dullness of contemporary society inspires nothing. Thus we read the narrator of the poem describe the drab night in London, “Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, / The muttering retreats / Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels” (4-6).

At the center of both works is the topic of love. Both works focus on the darker, less inspiring nature of love, the side of which provokes neurosis and insecurity. Throughout the poem, the narrator’s subconscious communicated to the reader of the insecurities of our aging subject:

And indeed there will be time

To wonder, “Do I dare?” and “Do I dare?”

Time to turn back and descend the stair,

With a bald spot in the middle of my hair–– (37-40).

Through this drug-induced paranoia driven night, the speaker is fixed on the topic of love and the topic of rejection. Self-questioning and doubt plague our speaker as further noted when the speaker states, “If one, settling a pillow by her head, / Should say: ‘That is not what I meant at all; / That is not what I meant, at all’” (96-98).

Anxieties induced by miscommunication fuel both the narratives in the poem and in Blonde. The track “Self-Control” in blonde communicate this greatly in the lines, “Wish I was there, wish we'd grown up on the same advice / And our time was right” (Ocean). The same feelings of misunderstandings in Eliot’s poem are echoed in Ocean’s, “Self-Control”. While love is ever so hard to find, the loss of it hits even harder.

There is a sentiment of intense heart-ache in both works, as our authors explore their feelings of heartbreak and growth within a world of growing complexities. While Eliot was grasping with an emerging capitalist world in the post WWI era, Ocean deals with a technological driven, ever connected and disconnected world. In each case, an element of fantasy is used in order to properly convey the absurd in both author’s lives. Eliot uses the mermaids in “The Love Song…”, “We have lingered in the chambers of the sea / By the sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown / Till human voices wake us, and we drown” (129-131) and Ocean narrative breaking interludes and skits in the album which serve to break the narrative of the album with snippets of reality. While Eliot ends the poem with the death of the narrator as a result of awakening, Ocean ends Blonde with the question, “How far is a lightyear?”. Eliot concludes his feelings of ennui with a death. Of what, however, we are not sure. Ocean, on the other hand, imparts his final feelings of ennui in a technology world with the invocation of the cosmic. Perhaps beyond our own feelings of ennui and anxiety, there is something greater, some kind of relief. Be that religion or something else it is out there, but just how far is it?

Blog Post 1: Before the Law

Word Count:762
     
                                                           Analyzing Before the Law

My group resonated with a socioeconomic perspective when reading Kafka's "Before the Law". In the reading, we interpreted a man from the country as being disadvantaged using Marxist theory. Ultimately, characterizing the man as seeking entry into a hypothetical gate that represented the world of the wealthy. This could be seen throughout the plot in which the protagonist of the story (country man) is impeded by barriers as the antagonist purposely tries to exclude the man from being a part of his world. As the gatekeeper is speaking to the man he states,“if it tempts you so much, try it in spite of my prohibition. But take note: I am powerful” (Kafka). Here, the gatekeeper essentially sets himself aside because he has more advantage and is thus superior.

The gatekeeper essentially lets the man know that he can choose to defy his orders but should keep in mind the position he is in.  When referring this back to the hierarchical pyramid, in society it is clear that the structure presents the rich at the top while the disadvantaged are set at the bottom. By observing how highly the gatekeeper is keeping the gate closed, it is clear that there are a number of reasons as to why the man cannot be let in; one being his financial status. Yet since the gatekeeper has done all that is in his power to make sure he (man) is not let in, he soon gives up. Towards the middle of the story, “the man, who has equipped himself with many things for his journey, spends everything, no matter how valuable, to win over the gatekeeper”.  As a result, the man has realized that everything he has been doing will not make the gatekeeper budge. He will not be, under no circumstances, let in as much he tries which leads him to resort to bribery. Due to the fact that the man is of lower class, there is not much that the man could give in order to prove that he should be given access. This not only could be one point of view to analyze this story, but it is not far from how other individuals may feel when they sense that they do not belong. It is not uncommon for people to feel as if they are obligated to prove themselves and their capabilities through what they choose to wear and purchase, even if it does not fit their budget.

However, in overlooking the story in class and being able to hear the various ways my peers approached this same story, I would now go with the reader response approach. When looking at this through multiple perspectives, it is clear that there is no right answer, yet, some make more sense than others. For example, if a person who reads this story through a religious lens, the reader may interpret that this story is about a man trying to gain entry into heaven. The gatekeeper offers the man a seat outside the gate for him to sit outside waiting which accumulates to years. As time passes “the gatekeeper often interrogates him briefly, questioning him about his homeland …. questions, the kind great men put, and at the end he always tells him once more that he cannot let him inside yet” (Kafka). Here, the gatekeeper would represent God, and the reason as to why the man cannot get in despite his persistence is because he has committed mistakes or simply done bad deeds throughout his life that have made him an unworthy soul of being in the house of God. In the story, there is a place in which the man “recognizes now in the darkness an illumination which breaks inextinguishable out of the gateway to the law” (Kafka). The man is able to see a light through his years of being there, which represents the light one sees as they are dying. If the “law” actually characterized the idea of heaven there would be great similarities between what the man sees.

Overall, the story has the ability in being interpreted differently depending on how the individual chooses to approach and analyze the text. When reading the story through a socioeconomic approach, when one reaches the end they will realize that not every piece of the story will satisfy that approach strong enough so that it is not refuted. On the other hand, when reading the story through the readers approach, it allows the reader to create their own idea or meaning which could be related to God, heaven, or so on. By breaking down the text through the readers approach, individuals are given freedom to set the story from their own interpretation.

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in comparison to "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night"

Blog post #1

In T.S Eliot’s “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, Eliot depicts the sense of Ennui and detachment from human connection as it functions within the conditions of modernity. In spite of a large difference in eras of production, Eliot’s depiction of Ennui is largely in line with modern displays of youthful angst in films such as Ana Lily Amirpour’s “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night”.

The film “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” is classified by the film’s director, Ana Lily Amirpour, with the brief words, “In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.” Amirpour combines elements of classic western and vampire film techniques in her black and white depiction of the fictional Iranian region of “Bad City”. This lonely, melancholic atmosphere as the femme-vampire protagonist sifts through desolate, oil rig filled streets is not unlike the scene painted by Eliot in the opening of “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock”. Expressing this disdain for the city surrounding him, Prufrock dejectedly states: “Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, / The muttering retreats / Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels / and sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: / Streets that follow like a tedious argument / Of insidious intent”. In spite of the drastic difference in the eras of production, the poverty and disruption of life in modernized cities is a theme that has remained prevalent in the first expressions of modernity and Ennui up until today. This disdain for the grime of modern cities and the ruin of economically failed areas circulates throughout both Eliot's poem and Amirpour’s film as a realistic plight that both motivates and concerns the central characters.

Upon initial consideration, the protagonists of Amirpour’s “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night” and Eliot's “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” appear to be starkly different in character. Amirpour’s femme-fatale Iranian vampire, frequently stalking abusive men as her prey, seems to be an entirely different entity than an entity such as Eliot's Prufrock that can only go as far as to think about taking action. However, both of these characters quite similarly struggle with expressing themselves in relation to the world around them. From the human struggling to form genuine human connections, to the non-human vampire struggling to form genuine human connections, the obstacle faced by both self-identified outsiders remains the same. For example, Prufrock states in his anxiety: “It is impossible to say just what I mean! / But as a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: / Would it have been worth while / If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, / And turning toward the window should say: / “That is not it at all, / That is not what I meant at all.” As Prufrock lives inside of his own mind, ruled by social anxiety, the protagonist of Amirpour’s vampire-western film face a similar inability to bridge the gap between herself and others. In Amirpour’s depiction, the chador adorned, black lipped, Iranian vampire is never able to directly or efficiently express herself to those around her. As Prufrock is unable to put on a mask to overcome his introverted nature and engage with the women around him, the lonesome vampire is similarly unable exist as anything other than a creature of isolation. This is exemplified in the film as the outcasted vampire interacts with an impoverished child that she witnesses stealing. The darkly veiled, wide-eyed vampire bares her fangs as she venomously threatens the young child in Farsi to behave as her only means of acting upon her good intentions. In these regards, though these angst ridden protagonists differ in nature, they elicit angst-ridden response to the surrounding world by taking the position of an outsider that is unable to genuinely communicate and be understood by others.

This leads to similar issues in romantic connection that is found as central issue in both Eliot's “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” and Amirpour’s “A girl walks home at night”. From the human struggling to form human connections to the non-human struggling to form human connection, the obstacle faced by both entities defined as “other” remain. In “A girl Walks Home Alone At Night”, Amirpour crafts a scene of slow and painstaking silence between the main characters that is reminiscent of the barriers both formed and faced by Eliot's Prufrock that prevent unrestrained communication. In such a restrained scene absent of dialogue, Amirpour conveys a similar sense of tension arising from the same inability to communicate that is present in Eliot’s portrayal of Prufrock. All the while, in the absence of dialogue, the song “Death” by White Lies plays with a chorus that recites, “ This fear's got a hold on me / Yes, this fear's got a hold on me.” In this slow and patient scene, the inward sense of emotion is present at it highest. Similarly to Eliot’s depiction of Prufrock, there is a distinct frustration that arises as they grapple with the fear of speaking to others as they truly are.

Humanity's Separation From Nature in "The Fish"

            “The Fish” turns human arrogance in the face of nature on its head, detailing our role within as a subordinate exile. Marianne Moore emphasizes this point in the sentence reading “All/external marks/ of abuse are present on this/defiant edifice-/all the physical features of acc/ident-lack of cornice, dynamite grooves, burns, and/hatchet strokes, these things stand/out on it; the chasm-side is/dead” (Moore 30-41). To abridge her primary tactics in doing so: she juxtaposes a lush vision of the ritual protagonist’s ocean home with a rather opaque description of man’s effects on the setting, utilizes choice diction emphasizing a sense of externality, and engages a choppy flow that jolts the reader from the calming roll of the prior stanzas.

            The visual contrast between the previously cited sentence and the vast majority of the poem is rather stark. In prior stanzas, Moore’s verse is stunningly vivid, with precise, swarthy phrasing such as “the submerged shafts of the/sun,/split like spun glass” (10-12). Yet, in the sentence chosen here, her choice of imagery is muted. It stands out within the whole not for its spectacle, but for its lack thereof. Within the sentence, Moore does not use a single adjective, metaphor, or simile; in over-simplified terms, she does not engage a single piece of visual rhetoric. Yet, in the four stanzas prior, nearly every line, every creature composing the sunlit tide, is intoned on the back of some sort of evocative imagery. It would be an exaggeration to imply a total lack of sensory engagement; the reader can envision, albeit in the most black and white terms, how the “chasm-side” (40) may appear. But Moore appears to affirm her visual intent in the parting words of the sentence: “the chasm-side is/dead” (40-41), just as the ocean beneath is alive. One could argue that Moore means to indict human action as murderous. Yet, given the almost hyperbolic extent to which she emphasizes man’s ostracization, such contention would find little base.

            Moore’s diction reveals a singular view of humanity’s destructive efforts within the ocean’s clockwork-like system; that it is not, in fact, within the system, but outside of it. Notice how Moore characterizes the initial reveal of man’s violence against the chasm-side. They are “external/marks of abuse” (27-28). Not just “marks”(28), but “external/marks” (27-28). The identifier of external, in a syntactic sense, is unnecessary. So, its inclusion necessitates that we assume intent. Moore wants us to know that this “abuse” has not reached the depths of the sea, nor the titular fish, but instead forced to remain outside, “external”. She further emphasizes this point by precluding any pity for the so vividly detailed ocean by invoking its seeming disdain for human action, describing it as a “defiant edifice” (29), implying both active resistance and disobedience. The “edifice” is not a victim to be pitied, but a tyrant spitting in the face of an unworthy rebellion. And just as Moore’s stating “the chasm-side is dead” seems to affirm her visual intent, the concluding lines of the sentence also reinforce her intended sentiment. Moore provides a brief gloss of the “external marks of abuse”: “lack/of cornice, dynamite grooves, burns, and/hatchet strokes” (28-29). But she defies prior tradition by not detailing its effects within the system, but instead emphasizing its ostracization, stating “these things stand/out on it” (29-30). Moore works in a clever set of potential definitions for “stand out” here. The marks “stand out” in the sense that they do not appear to fit in, and also “stand out” just as a man venturing into the waves would be forced to stand outside the waters, above the tides, lest he be drowned.

            The contrasting flow of the sentence relative to the rest of the poem reinforces this sense of asymmetry. Prior to the two stanzas composing the sentence, there are two breaks (breaks defined here as separations in the verse, i.e. semicolons, colons, dashes), a dash and a semicolon. In these two stanzas, there are two breaks as well, also a dash and a semicolon. The initial dash prior to this sentence serves as a bridge between two similar visual phrases, wherein Moore writes “into the crevices-in and out”. The flow is not broken by the dash, but assisted. Now, examine the use of the same symbol in the lines “All/external/marks of abuse are present on this/defiant edifice-/all the physical features of acc/ident-lack/of cornice…” (30-37). Moore, rather than engaging the dash to further the rhythm, does so to wedge in an entirely separate phrase. The dash is used in place of a transition. Moore refuses a chance to continue the poem’s flow, in a place where the reader has thus far been conditioned to expect a continuation of the rhythm. But instead, they are stopped short. This shift to a choppy, staccato meter stands in sharp contrast to the smooth placidity of the vast majority of Moore’s piece, further emphasizing the point of separation.

            By juxtaposing imagery and rhythm between the examined sentence and the preceding stanzas, and careful word choice to reinforce a sense of externality, Moore reminds readers that despite man’s hubris, our attempts to rebel against nature itself, a system of outrageous scope and complexity, are futile, and can only end in our own exile.