Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The speaker is a person who has gone fishing in a rented boat
Form and Meter
Free verse
Metaphors and Similes
Bishop uses a simile to describe the skin of the fish, comparing it to patterned wallpaper, and comparing its dark spots to a floral pattern. The poem also uses simile to compare the fish's flesh to feathers, its swim bladder to a peony, the hooks lodged in its lip to weapons, and the attached fishing lines to medals.
Meanwhile, through metaphor, Bishop compares the lime covering the fish to rosettes, the fish's eyes to tinfoil, and the fishing lines in its mouth to a beard.
Alliteration and Assonance
Alliterative phrases include "beside the boat," "tarnished tinfoil," "lower lip," and "wet and weaponlike." Instances of assonance include the phrases "hung a grunting," "tiny white sea-lice," "green weed," and "frayed and wavering."
Irony
When describing what is most unfamiliar about the fish, the speaker will often, ironically, opt for metaphorical comparisons that are domestic and familiar—for instance, wallpaper. More broadly, the speaker's apprehension of the fish's complete foreignness, ironically, is part of what prompts her feeling of affinity and respect for it.
Genre
Lyric poetry
Setting
A rental boat in an unnamed body of water
Tone
Observant, attentive, cautious, and ultimately euphoric
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the speaker. However, in catching the fish, the speaker can also be understood as an antagonist.
Major Conflict
The poem's major conflict is the speaker's decision about whether to let the fish live.
Climax
The climax of the poem is the moment when the speaker is overcome with joy, in which her boat seems to fill with rainbows.
Foreshadowing
The speaker's attempts to look into the fish's eyes foreshadow her ultimate effort to empathize with and understand it.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The poem's title alludes to a poem of the same name, written by Bishop's friend Marianne Moore.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Bishop does not use metonymy or synecdoche in this poem.
Personification
The fish is described as having a "sullen face," though generally, the work avoids personifying the fish.
Hyperbole
In order to describe the extent of the speaker's euphoria, Bishop hyperbolically writes that "everything / was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!"
Onomatopoeia
The word "grunting" is subtly onomatopoetic.
