I'm writing an literary analysis on "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop and I can't seem to understand the meaning in the poem. Also, don't know how to even start on it....help, please!

Question

jagatuba · Answer

It seems fairly straight forward to me. She catches a fish. It's and old fish as evidenced by the the lack of fight in it and by it's beat up appearance and by his "yellowed, the irises backed and packed with tarnished tinfoil". By the end of the poem, she begins to understand that the fish had at one time been a tough one and had fought at least five very hard battles. She is filled with a sense of victory for having succeeded where five others failed. And in the end she releases the fish, not out of sympathy, but out of respect. She felt he deserved to live what little life he had left as free as he had ever been.

That's my take anyway.