Marianne Moore The Fish

1170 Words3 Pages

Although the relationship between nature and humankind contains unavoidable paradoxes, Marianne Moore conveys their complex bond through her natural imagery and unique structure. Moore questions the balance between the universe and humanity’s attempt to control it in her poem “The Fish.”
Prominently, Moore’s poem displays the essence of water. Her poem, a collection of eight stanzas, ebbs and flows, much like that of a wave. Christian Reed notes that Moore’s “inherent rhythm” creates the “conjunction between the poem’s formal structure and the substance of its descriptions.” As her stanzas syllabically increase and decrease amongst lines, the literal image of a wave is created. Waves build within the sea, crash upon a shore, and retreat back
Initially, More glimpses at a pack of fish swimming through the sea. She notices how they “wade” through the water, thus impacting the “crow-blue mussel-shells” in the sand below (1, 3). Moore begins with imagery of fish to represent humanity’s impact on the smaller parts of nature. Soon after, the focus shifts from the fish to the water in which they swim. She introduces the water to be made of “black jade” but later, as the sun glistens through, illustrates the waves to be “turquoise” (2, 17). This water, like all oceans, flows with the tides. However, Moore’s waves later bring a “wedge / of iron” onto the nearby cliff (18-19). Moore shifts her image of the water to convey nature’s ever-changing ways. While constantly transforming, Moore’s waves continue to endure the rhythmic motion of the ocean. But while her poem is mainly about the sea, Moore does not solely focus on it. Instead, she implies the life of the water through the lives of the creatures it impacts. Moore is able to “represent the sea formally even if she is not saying anything directly about it in the content of the poem” (Ranta). Moore’s subtleties provide a hidden significance. By her lack of direct description, Moore’s s imagery of waves explains their ultimate force upon the world— along with the world’s attempt to control it. Eventually, Moore displays a cliff on the seashore. This cliff is a “defiant edifice” by its strength against the abuse of the waves (29). Naturally, as the waves hit the cliff, the water wears away the presiding rocks. Over time, this oceanic cycle will decrease the size of the cliff. But this cliff is not only being impacted by the ocean: “dynamite grooves, burns, and / hatchet strokes” cause this stone to be “dead” (33-34, 36). Clearly, society has claimed this cliff as theirs. Humankind, with its industrialized habits, damages preexisting life. Amongst this destruction, the cliff is able to endure

Open Document