TheAppreciationofTheFish

【Abstract】The Fish by Marianne Moore was published in 1921 and this poem leaves large space for the readers to conduct comprehensive interpretation. A couple of significant aspects of the poem are well worth discussing and appreciating. In this paper， the poem will be summarized in a way of story-telling and some indispensable elements of the poem will be analyzed in detail. First， the structure of the poem will be analyzed from two perspectives： the disordered arrangement of the lines and the missing of the subject. Besides， the metre of the poem will be analyzed： strict rhyme scheme and alliteration.Whats more， the figure of speech applied in the poem needs to be paid more attention： simile， metaphor and personification. In particular， the contrast of colors in this poem will be studied： darkness and colorfulness. Last but not least， the theme of the poem is opening and three themes will be discussed： life and death， natural disaster and man-made damage， the symbiosis.

【Key words】structure； metre； figure of speech； color contrast； theme

The Appreciation of The Fish

Beneath the deep sea where the water is dark and cold， an unknown fish appears and swims with difficulty. Among a couple of mussel-shells， there is a mussel-shell in particular abd it is opening and closing itself like an injured fan to adjust the ash remains of other mussel-shells. Above the sea， rays of sunshine light up everything beneath the dark sea， especially the barnades that tightly adhere to the side of the sea wave. The beautiful and bright sunlight moves quickly like the revolving glass and penetrates the black crevice. Back to the bottom of the sea， a lot of bodies can be easily spotted because of the bright sunlight. The powerful sea beats the cliff in an extremely violent and fierce way. However， the underwater creatures get along quite well with each other and slide each on the other. The external marks of damages on the cliff are obvious enough to be noticed. Also， some purposeful man-made damages to the cliff stands out， such as burns and hatchet strokes. As a result， a part of the cliff is totally ruined and dead. Despite the fact that the sea can not revive the youth of the cliff， the cliff still lives on the sea. At the same time， the sea grows old in the cliff.

At the first sight of the poem， the peculiar structure stands out and differentiates itself from other ordinary poems. From the overall perspective， the lines of the poem are arranged in disorder and even indented. The seemingly disordered structure of the poem looks like the wave of the deep sea that goes up and down all the time. The special arrangement of the lines serves visual function for the readers to associate the form of the poem with the shape of the setting of the poem： sea. Thus， the poem turns out to be visually successful and beautiful. From the specific perspective， the first line of the poem begins with only a predicate “wade”， which seems strange to the readers. But the lowercase of the predicate “wade” gives a hint that the word “wade” has something to do with the capitalized title： The Fish. Thus， the purpose of the poet is obvious ： The Fish is not only the title of the whole poem but also the subject of the first line of the whole poem. Thus the title serves two functions and proves to be one of the indispensable elements of the special structure of The Fish.

With close reading， the metre of the poem needs to be paid attention and analyzed in detail. There are eight stanzas， and each stanza has five lines following the rhyme scheme： AABBC. For example ：“wade”-“jade”，“keeps”-“heaps”，”like”； “an”- “fan”， “side”- “hide”， “the”. Here， the perfectly rhymed couplet “ac”- “lack”should be paid much more attention. The poet breaks the word “accident” like that in order to make the poem strictly and perfectly rhymed. The perfectly rhymed scheme makes the poem fluent to read and beautiful to look.Whats more， there is also alliteration in the poem， for example ： “submerged”- “shafts”- “sun”- “split”- “spun”. On the one hand， the function alliteration here is to make the poem phonetically beautiful. On the other hand， the repeated sound “s” reminds the readers of the presence of sunlight and reinforce the power of the sunlight at the same time.

Another obvious feature of the poem is the figure of speech which includes： simile， metaphor and personification. In the poem，the mussel-shell is compared to an injured fan， which portrays a vivid picture of this mussel-shell： disabled， old， slow-moving， hurt and lacking of vitality. This simile echos and reinforces the presence of the“ash-heaps” that means lifeless and death. The other simile： the sunlight is compared to the revolving glass that possess the features： bright and smooth. Here， the sunshine serves as a lighter that lights everything up with its brightness and smoothness.Whats more， the violent beating from the sea is metaphorically compared to “driving a wedge of iron”， which gives the readers a sense of violence and indifference. The wedge of iron is sharp and rigid， and the indifferent sea beats the cliff like a wedge of iron. This simile here again echos the “abuse” mentioned later in the poem. Besides， personification is applied in the poem. In the line “marks of abuse...defiant edifice”， the edifice（cliff） seems to possess the characteristics of a man who is defiant and suffers the abuse. Notice the word “abuse” which has something to do with men. So the personification here reminds the readers of the relationship between the cliff and the human world. To some extent， this figure of speech contributes a lot to the analysis of the theme about the natural disaster and the man-made damage.

Another important point in this poem is the contrast of the color. In the fist stanza， the water is described as “black”， the mussel-shell is described as “crow-blue”.The two dark colors give the readers a sense of darkness and dirty of the sea water. However， in the fifth stanza， the rice grins are described as “pink”， the jelly fish is described as“ink-bespattered”， the crabs are described as“green lilies”. The multiple colors used here provide a colorful and vibrant underwater world. To some extent， the colors in the first stanza and the colors in the fifth stanza contrast to each other. Although the water is dark and cold， the creatures beneath the water still live happily and get along well with each other. This color contrast gives the readers such impression： No matter how ugly the environment is， all creatures should hold a positive attitude towards life and keep struggling.

Last but not least， the theme of the poem will be analyzed and appreciated from several different perspectives for there exists ambiguity in The Fish. The openness of the theme is one of the brilliant features of the poem.

The first theme of the poem is about： life and death. From the key words of the last stanza “dead”， “live”， “revive”， “youth” and the relevant content of the poem， the theme about life and death proves to be reasonable. Although the sea cant return youth to the cliff， the cliff still lives on it. Like the cliff， a man is supposed to live his life with a positive attitude. Knowing the fact that nobody has an eternal life， a man is supposed to pursue something meaningful in his whole life. Even if the pursuit of a man gets himself old and aging， the man will still stick to his positive life attitude and strive to live high before his death. Another clue that reveals the theme about life and death is the color contrast between the dark sea and the colorful creatures. As mentioned above， besides these colorful underwater creatures， all creatures should keep a positive attitude towards life and make efforts to live no matter how terrible the surrounding environment is.

The second theme of the poem is about： natural disaster and man-made damage. In the seventh stanza， there are several Key words： “abuse”， “dynamite grooves” “hatchet strokes”. These key words convey an important message that the damages are caused by people， not the natural world. Actually man-made damage leads to the natural disaster， because man-made damage has already broken the balance between the natural world and the human world. Besides，the possibility of the natural disaster is lower than that of the human damage， because humans conduct their damage on purpose and out of control. Thus， humans are supposed to control their behavior， especially their harmful behavior to the natural world.

The third theme of the poem is about： symbiosis. In the poem， the sea， the underwater creatures and the cliff form an organic unity together. In this unity， the cliff protects the sea as a natural barrier and the sea grows old in it， in turn， the cliff relies on the sea to get itself stronger by enduring the beating of the water. Whats more， the sea protects the underwater creatures by providing the natural place for them， in turn， the sea relies on these creatures to purify the water and make the underwater environment more vibrant. Also， the cliff protects the underwater creatures from being attacked by separating them from the outside world， in turn， the cliff relies on these underwater creatures to make its life meaningful. The organic unity in the sea sets an excellent example for humans： Everyone in the world has his proper role and they rely on each other mutually to live.

The Fish by Marianne Moore is well worth reading and appreciating from the following perspectives： the special structure， the perfect metre， the figure of speech， the color contrast， and the open theme. The theme of this poem turns out to be serious and it is of great significance for people to think about the problem of life and death， the natural disaster and the man-made damage， and symbiosis. Besides these aspects analyzed in the paper， The Fish still leaves large space for readers to conduct further research.

作者简介：何丽然（1991.02.01-），女，河北衡水深州人，研究生在读，研究方向：英语语言文学。