Imagery and Simile in Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish"

Introduction and Overview

Elizabeth Bishop's poem The Fish was first published in 1946. Throughout this poem, Bishop employs extensive figurative language to convey her perspective on the fish. The poem reveals the speaker's reverence for the subject through vivid descriptions and careful word choice. Bishop uses two main elements when describing the fish: imagery and similes. The poem also displays admiration, a surprise ending, alliteration, and open form poetic structure.

Imagery as a Primary Device

Like many poets, Bishop relied on imagery to communicate details and create meaning in The Fish. Imagery consists of words or phrases that describe the senses and convey what is happening in the poem (Kirszner & Mandell, 2013, p. 659). In the opening line, Bishop writes, "I caught a tremendous fish" (Kirszner & Mandell, 2013, p. 968). From this single line, readers mentally construct an image of a large, heavy fish with considerable mass. Bishop continues to describe the fish in increasingly colorful ways, allowing readers to visualize the fish as she perceives it.

These vivid descriptions and details assist the reader in connecting with the poet's ideas (Kirszner & Mandell, 2013). Sensory language draws readers into the speaker's experience and makes the poem's observations feel immediate and tangible. By grounding the poem in physical detail, Bishop invites readers to see the fish not merely as an abstract subject but as a living creature worthy of close attention.

Similes and Sensory Comparison

Poets often use figurative language, including similes and metaphors, to help readers understand what the poem conveys. A simile is a comparison of two seemingly unlike things using the words "like" or "as" (Kirszner & Mandell, 2013, p. G9). Bishop masterfully employs similes throughout The Fish. The first example appears around line nine:

and homely. Here and there
his brown skin hung in strips
like ancient wallpaper,
and its pattern of darker brown
was like wallpaper;
shapes of full-blown roses
stained and lost through age.
(Kirszner & Mandell, 2013, p. 969)

This simile allows readers to understand the fish's skin color and texture by comparing it to aged wallpaper. The image conveys both the visual appearance—the pattern and discoloration—and suggests a sense of deterioration and time.

Another significant simile begins around line 27:

I thought of the coarse white flesh
packed in like feathers,
the big bones and the little bones,
the dramatic reds and blacks
of his shiny entrails,
and the pink swim-bladder
like a big peony.
I looked into his eyes
which were far larger than mine
but shallower, and yellowed,
the irises backed and packed
with tarnished tinfoil
seen through the lenses
of old scratched isinglass.
They shifted a little, but not
to return my stare.
(Kirszner & Mandell, 2013, p. 969)

This extended simile helps readers understand the fish's internal structure and appearance. Comparing the packed flesh to feathers conveys both texture and density, while likening the swim-bladder to a peony introduces unexpected beauty into a description of anatomical reality. Bishop's reference to isinglass—the gel-like substance found around fish eyes and bladders—demonstrates her precise natural observation.

Admiration and Perseverance

Throughout the poem, Bishop employs amplified language to appeal to readers' senses. She ensures that readers can visualize the fish's appearance while engaging multiple sensory impressions. By comparing unfamiliar fish anatomy to recognizable objects, Bishop makes the fish's strangeness accessible and even beautiful to those who have never examined a fish closely.

People tend to admire things they become attached to or envision. In The Fish, Bishop displays admiration for the fish through its remarkable perseverance. The following passage reveals this theme:

I admired his sullen face,
the mechanism of his jaw,
and then I saw
that from his lower lip
—if you could call it a lip—
grim, wet, and weaponlike,
hung five old pieces of fish-line,
or four and a wire leader
with the swivel still attached,
with all their five big hooks
grown firmly in his mouth.
A green line, frayed at the end
where he broke it, two heavier lines,
and a fine black thread
still crimped from the strain and snap
when it broke and he got away.
(Kirszner & Mandell, 2013, p. 969)

The Surprise Ending

This passage demonstrates how the fish has survived multiple attempts to capture it. The hooks and fishing lines embedded in its mouth serve as battle scars, evidence of the fish's will to survive and escape. Bishop's admiration stems not from the fish's beauty or size but from its resilience in the face of repeated danger.

The poem contains a striking surprise that subverts reader expectations. From the poem's beginning, one might assume that Bishop intends to keep the fish; however, the ending provides an unexpected twist. The poem concludes as follows:

I stared and stared
and victory filled up
the little rented boat,
from the pool of bilge
where oil had spread a rainbow
around the rusted engine
to the bailer rusted orange,
the sun-cracked thwarts,
the oarlocks on their strings,
the gunnels—until everything
was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!
And I let the fish go.

Conclusion

As one can see, The Fish represents several important literary elements working in concert. Some of these elements—such as the extended similes and vivid imagery—are immediately apparent, while others, such as the subtle alliteration, require closer reading and analysis to recognize. The poem's literary devices include admiration, surprise ending, alliteration, and open form, alongside imagery and simile. The Fish is simultaneously simple and complex, a poem that rewards sustained attention and invites multiple interpretations. Through her careful use of poetic technique, Bishop creates a meditation on observation, survival, and mercy that remains resonant nearly eighty years after its publication.