Question

What does the title contribute to the reader’s understanding?
Who is speaking? What is the situation?
What difficult, special, unusual words does the poem contain?
What references need explaining?
How does the poem develop? Personal statement or a story?
What is the main idea of the poem?
What kind of figurative language is the poem using? What about symbolism or literary allusions?

Answer 1

I caught a tremendous fish
and held him beside the boat
half out of water, with my hook
fast in a corner of his mouth.
5 He didn’t fight.
He hadn’t fought at all.
He hung a grunting weight,
battered and venerable
and homely. Here and there
1 0 his brown skin hung in strips
like ancient wallpaper,
and its pattern of darker brown
was like wallpaper:
shapes like full-blown roses
1 5 stained and lost through age.
He was speckled with barnacles,
fine rosettes of lime,
and infested
with tiny white sea-lice,
2 0 and underneath two or three
rags of green weed hung down.
While his gills were breathing in
the terrible oxygen
—the frightening gills,
2 5 fresh and crisp with blood,
that can cut so badly—
I thought of the coarse white flesh
packed in like feathers,
the big bones and the little bones,
3 0 the dramatic reds and blacks
of his shiny entrails,
and the pink swim-bladder
like a big peony.
I looked into his eyes
3 5 which were far larger than mine
but shallower, and yellowed,
the irises backed and packed
with tarnished tinfoil
seen through the lenses
4 0 of old scratched isinglass.1
They shifted a little, but not
to return my stare.
—It was more like the tipping
of an object toward the light.
4 5 I admired his sullen face,
the mechanism of his jaw,
and then I saw
that from his lower lip
—if you could call it a lip—
5 0 grim, wet, and weaponlike,
hung five old pieces of fish-line,
or four and a wire leader
with the swivel still attached,
with all their five big hooks
5 5 grown firmly in his mouth.
A green line, frayed at the end
where he broke it, two heavier lines,
and a fine black thread
still crimped from the strain and snap
6 0 when it broke and he got away.
Like medals with their ribbons
frayed and wavering,
a five-haired beard of wisdom
trailing from his aching jaw.
6 5 I stared and stared
and victory filled up
the little rented boat,
from the pool of bilge
where oil had spread a rainbow
7 0 around the rusted engine
to the bailer rusted orange,
the sun-cracked thwarts2
the oarlocks on their strings,
the gunnels3 —until everything
7 5 was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!
And I let the fish go.

Answer 2

the title is
The Fish

Answer 3

Well the title obviously tells you that the overall discussion is a fish....
"I" is speaking of a situation involving him catching a fish
This poem is EXTREMELY visual which means there is so much description in it that the reader cannot help but picture every detail. I would say that makes it pretty special.
I don't know that any reference needs explaining.
The poem develops from a personal story.
The main idea is not the fish but rather the history of the fish. The story is more of a fish's tail.
The last one can be a very lengthy answer. This poem is filled with figurative language that allows it to flow so effortlessly from one idea to the next.

Answer 4

I hope that helps a little. Sounds like your teacher wants a pretty detailed paper about this piece. It is a good piece, so I can't blame him/her. Try to focus on discussing the imagery used. The vivid details of the fish and how it all flows so easily from one idea to the next.

Answer 5

thank you that helps some

Answer 6

writing an explication of a poem 5 – 8 paragraphs

Answer 7

this is all i go =(
The title "The Fish" contribute to the poem because they are talking about a fish throw the poem. The fishermen is telling the story about a tremendous fish. The situation for the fish is not to bad. The fish does not die in the poem so it is a good thing for the fish.I think the fish is luck to have been cot so mine times and got a way with his life. He must of been very old to be so big and his health was bad.

Answer 8

please help i suck at English/writing =(

Answer 9

i will try promise i just need to read the poem lol ..im not perfect either

Answer 10

=D

Answer 11

The title "The Fish" contribute to the poem because they are talking about a fish throw the poem. The poem also helps the reader have a better understanding of the poem. The fishermen is telling the story about a big fish. The situation is not to bad. The fish does not die in the poem so it is a good thing for the fish. I think the fish is luck to have been cot so mine times and got a way with his life. He must of been very old to be so big and his health was bad. In this poem the difficult, special, unusual words is grunting weight, battered and venerable, speckled with barnacles, shiny entrails, frayed and wavering, big peony. What kind of figurative language is the poem using? Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something else, you are using figurative language. In this case he uses simile english in line 6,line 10. Inline 10 he uses symbolism 25 fresh and crisp with blood (that can cut so badly) this basically shows it would be to painful to watch the fish die. In line 5 he uses repetition (He didn't fight. He hadn't fought at all). This emphasizes on the bravery shown by the fish or he just did not want to live any more.An example of literary alliteration in this in line 75 until everything 75 was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And i let the fish go. whereby the poet has used repetition of the words rainbow. In his case id like to think that the rainbow symbolizes or foreshadows hope for the fish fish since as we've seen ahead he has been released by the fisherman. I think this would be a personal statement because the poet in emotionally and physically involved in all this.Who is speaking it's a fisherman!

Answer 12

is that good

Answer 13

oh lord....