Paper Topic:

ENG 312 Final Question

Running Head : ELIZABETH BISHOP 'S THE FISH

A Close Critical Reading of Elizabeth Bishop 's The Fish

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University

Humans do not only learn from each other 's experiences . Sometimes things in nature create within an observer or participant of a phenomenon in nature , a profound realization about life . Elizabeth Bishop 's The Fish ' shares to the reader a said effect . The poem describes a simple fishing experience , but the event , prompted by a particular fish that the speaker catches , awakens within him a sense of awe as to the

worth of the otherwise everyday sea creature

The narrative poem has a simple story . It is about someone who goes fishing one day . After the speaker catches the fish , however , it becomes an object of curiosity for him . The introspection begins an internal struggle as to whether he should keep the fish or not . In the end , he chooses to throw it back into the sea . Using a number of literary devices , however , Bishop is able to dramatize through words the internal struggle and in the process , illuminates and heightens the ordinary experience

The fish , for one , is not described as an object . It is referred to as a he . This personification , however , is not to give the fish human attributes but to clue the reader that the poem is about more than catching a fish . The fish remains a fish all throughout the poem , but it is in the speaker 's mind that it becomes symbolic and therefore to...

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