| The Fish (Group 1) |
| by Elizabeth Bishop |
| I caught a tremendous fishand held him beside the boat
half out of water, with my hook fast in a corner of his mouth. He didn’t fight. He hadn’t fought at all. He hung a grunting weight, battered and venerable and homely. Instructions: Each individual student MUST post his or her sentences (mini, mini explication) about this section of the poem. The recorder Must post his or her individual sentence, as well as the GROUP paragraph, upon which you must agree. The GROUP paragraph must be EXACTLT 9 sentences. You must all decide as a group that the paragraph is to your exact specification. Come to agreement. Only then will the recorder post the GROUP paragraph. |
Individual response(last three lines): Here she paints a picture of how enormous the fish is. She describes how bruised and old the fish is, yet at the same time these bruises and old age is what gives it a sense of beauty. She has a sense of respect for the fish for being to hurt and aged yet still swimming through the waters.
GROUP paragraph: In the very first lines of the Bishop’s poem, the speaker catches a huge fish and treats it as such. She has just caught a fish and is in the process of bringing it into the boat. She isn’t very connected to the fish as it is a target of a sport, fishing. She then starts to sympathize with the fish as it hangs in the fishing line in defeat. She reeled it in easy as it didn’t fight back, almost as if she had just caught a dead fish. Then she goes on to describe the intricate details of the physical characteristics of the fish. The fish was really big as she struggled to hold it next to the boat. The fish is old and bruised from previous fights. Yet these marks is what makes the fish worthy of respect, although it is unpleasant looking and ugly.
[Reply]
Throughout the entire poem Elizabeth Bishop used great imagery to help create a vivid image in the readers mind. In the first three lines, she catches a huge fish which she can’t bring inside her boat. So she decide to just hold it against her boat, just hanging with his body half way in the water and his mouth out the water. Has the fish hangs her hook gets tight and firm into the corner of the fish mouth.
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Bishop wanted us to know that the fish was unusual. So the only question we should ask is why was the fish so inactive? I think that the fish was not only big but old as well. He did not try to attack nor fight for his life; howerver, he just stayed still and waited for for it to be taken away.
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