Themes And Imagery In The Fish By Robert Bishop

In the poem ‘The Fish’, the use of short lines and the presence of enjambments indicate that the poet, Bishop, is giving her own thoughts. This form of poetry gives the impression that the poet is not simply writing the words on a piece of paper but is rather speaking them out loud. The poem is presented in a way that the audience feels as if the poet was present at the scene and was narrating the events that occurred throughout the poem (Bishop 463). The poem is also written as a single stanza. The decision to write it this way may have been in an attempt to portray the long ordeal that fishermen engage in when fishing. In doing so, bishop is able to prepare the audience for the poem and to make sure that it resonates with the act of fishing itself. The poem is also full of imagery that is extremely vivid in description which help the audience visualize what is being narrated in the poem (Bishop 463). Through the narration, tone and imagery used, the audience is led into creating a bond with the fish. This bond is essential, as it is through it, the audience develops the same admiration towards the fish as the narrator does and appreciates

For a moment, the narrator took her attention from the ship to the ship she was using. It was aged and beaten up with oil dripping into the lake, making a rainbow as it came into contact with the water (Bishop 464). Bishop uses the image of the rainbow as it is regarded by most, if not all of the audience as a symbol of hope in the future. The belief in the rainbow as a sign of hope for a better future can be traced down to biblical times, when God sent a rainbow as a sign to Noah that the floods that occurred after forty days and nights of rain were over. The rainbow, thus symbolized that the fish would no longer suffer under the hands of the narrator, as it is at this point that she decided to set it free (Bishop