The Fish

The Fish is a poem that was written by Elizabeth Bishop. In this poem there were two types of irony. In the beginning of the poem she talks about how she caught a big fish, in which she goes in great detail about. This fish being as big as it was said that he didn't fight at all. The poem talks about how big this fish really is when she says “He hung a grunting weight" but also of how he is “battered and venerable and homely". When it came for her to describing this fish she talked about how his "skin hung in strips like ancient wall-paper"," its pattern of darker brown was like wall-paper", and "he was speckled with barnacles". The list continues of how she describes this glorious fish. All of these descriptions tell you how old the fish really is. After describing the appearance of the fish she starts to describe the insides as well. She talks about “the coarse white flesh packed in like feathers", " big bones and the little bones, the dramatic reds and blacks of his shiny entrails", and "the pink swim-bladder like a big peony". She then talks about how she stares at his eyes and his face. As she looks at this fishes poor face she notices his lip where it says “hung five old pieces of fish-line". She describes these hooks as two things from “medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering" and "a five-haired beard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw". She talks of how she kept staring at the fish and "how victory filled the rented boat". The speaker is realizing how big of a catch this fish really was and that catching him on his worst day was nothing special. In the end the speaker sees all this that she has thought and lets the fish go. One of the irony points is that she talks and talks about this fish for over 2 pages and how great this fish is and everything, but in the end lets the fish go. Another point of irony was that he caught this great fish and decided to let him live and lets him go, but with all the oil in the water the fish is going to die anyway.