izabeth Bishop's poem The Fish displays her ecological awareness that leads her to accept a relationship of coexistence between human beings and nonhuman beings. This ecological awareness in the poem is reflected when she leaves the fish free.
Elizabeth Bishop
Her decision to set the fish free comes only after her identification of herself with the fish. The identification asserts the belief in the nature as an ecological system in which the existence of individual element depends upon other elements. Through the narrative of the speaker, it becomes clear that she is a commercial fisher woman; she uses a ship, hoot and other instruments that are used in commercial fishing. Towards the end of the poem it becomes clear that she has come to the ship many times as suggested by “rusted engine” of the ship.
The poem at the beginning is simply a narration about what happen in a particular day. The speaker narrates her catching of a big fish and other small fishes too. In her narration about the fish the commercial attitudes are reflected. She begins with the description of the skin and includes other parts like ‘white flesh’, ‘gills’, ‘bones’, ‘lip’, ‘jaw’ and so on. Reflecting the commercial attitude, she in her imagination unskins the flesh of the fish for commercial sale/benefit. The description of the fish in terms of its parts can be related to cutting of the fish into parts that can be used for different purposes.
The poet attempts to look into the eyes of the fish marks a crucial point in the poem. Perhaps this is an attempt to identify the human existence with the existence of the fish. As she continuously stares at the fish, she becomes aware of interdependent existence. The awareness of the speaker is the awareness of the transitoriness of human glory, human domination over animals or even of commercial benefit. The rust in the engine and rainbow can be related to this awareness. The killing of the fish can rust the ecology. And rainbow reinforces the awareness of transitoriness of that achievement. When the poet or speaker decides to set the fish free in terms of ecology, she not only saves of life of that fish but also saves many lives. In that sense the poet gains big things by losing some small thing
- See more at: http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/the-fish.html#sthash.gXBOgg7N.dpuf