Close Reading: The Fish By Marianne Moore

Henry He

Professor Evgeniya Koroleva

ENG130

18 September 2015

Close Reading: “The Fish” by Marianne Moore

In “The Fish”, Marianne describes the perpetual cycle of life and death that occurs within the sea. The poem introduces the sea as a cruel and hostile force, and compared to “black jade” for its ability to blot out light. It is later in the poem that the sea’s nurturing nature is exposed and acts as a refuge for the “ink- / bespattered jellyfish, crabs like green / lilies, and submarine

toadstools”. Moore captures the of duality in the sea’s nature through the use of rhyme, syntax, and syllabic verse.

“The Fish” adopts an AABBC rhyme scheme to create this sense of order that contrasts heavily against the sea’s chaotic nature. This rhyme scheme is dramatically enforced in stanza 4, where the word “accident” is broken into “ac- / cident” so that the first syllable in line 1 would rhyme with “lack” in line 2. Stanza 7 is unusual because it is the only stanza without a whole word for its first syllable and causes considerable confusion for the readers. However, Moore would tolerate this awkwardness, going so far to impose it on her

readers, just to preserve the rhyme scheme of the poem. The author’s loyalty to the rhyme scheme creates this feeling of predictability and it differs greatly from the sea’s spontaneous nature. While Moore could have substituted “accident” out, it wouldn’t give the poem its complex meaning.
Moore’s calculated use of syntax exposes the sea’s interaction with the other environments in its reach.

The word “accident” is divided into two parts in stanza 7, but is still a part of the sentence that goes through stanza 6 to 8 (“ All / external / marks of abuse are present on this / defiant edifice— /all the physical / features of / ac- / cident—…). The “defiant” edifice is the cliff that bears the brunt of the sea waves, resulting in the “external marks of abuse”. At the same time, the waves are eroding and erasing these marks as “an accident” caused by the sea. The division between “ac” and “cident” mirrors the duplicity of the sea’s action; it heals and attacks the cliff. The clever syntax in the sentence gives a mundane word like “accident” a special meaning and reflects the sea’s interaction with other

environments.
The poem follows a syllabic verse of 1-3-8-6-9 to recreate the physical qualities of the sea. The syllabic verse is present in all of the stanza, but its full effects can be demonstrated by reading the poem aloud. The poem sounds very consistent because of the poetic form; a syllabic verse establishes a standard unit, and every stanza in the poem becomes a single unit. In the case of “The Fish”, every stanza becomes a single wave (if you haven’t noticed it, every stanza imitates the appearance of a wave). The result is a rhythm with a wave-like motion that is persistent, just like the ocean waves. By mimicking the receding and rising waves, Moores adds emphasis to the overarching theme of life in death in the poem.
Using poetic techniques like rhyme, syntax, and line allowed Marianne Moore to capture the duplicit nature of the sea. Each poetic technique exposes the sea in a new light; its actions would often contradict itself and pertains to the perpetual cycle of life and death. The result is a poem that show the forces of destruction and creation working together rather than against one another.