Hanging on a Hook. fully experience a text, paying close attention to the use of language, sounds, and meanings,

Transcription

1 Hanging on a Hook Imagery bonds language and literature to our senses. We let the poet s words simmer and percolate in our minds. (Roberts 528) Elizabeth Bishop uses this literary device with precision in her poem, The Fish. An aesthetic reader engages and wishes to fully experience a text, paying close attention to the use of language, sounds, and meanings, allowing for a personal relationship to be made. A poem comes into being only when it receives a proper ( aesthetic ) reading, that is, when readers interact with a given text (Guerin 354). There is no urgency to find a theme in aesthetic reading; in fact the theme is not a priority at all. The reader is not looking to glean any factual information, only to appreciate the beauty of the literature and skill of the author. In The Fish, Bishop uses several types of imagery to create value for aesthetic readers through the poem s personal relativity to each of them and its excellent use of the English language. Imagery helps the reader connect not only visually, but through the other senses as well. Tactile imagery, in conjunction with auditory imagery, in the poem promotes a relationship between the reader and the fish. Take for example, While his gills were breathing in / the terrible oxygen / the frightening gills, / fresh and crisp with blood, / that can cut so badly (23-27). The use of tactile imagery to describe the blood on the gills evokes a feeling of distress and pain in the reader. In addition, the words breathing in terrible oxygen also create an auditory image of the fish struggling to breathe. This allows readers to develop compassion for the fish thereby assisting them in creating a personal relationship to the poem, an important aspect of aesthetic reading. Another tactile image, found in lines 9-10 allows readers to imagine what the fish feels like based on experiences in their own lives. Here and there / his brown skin hung in

2 2 strips / like ancient wallpaper. (9-10) When wallpaper is first hung, it feels smooth, and it is hung in perfect strips so that no lines or glue are visible. Similarly, a fish is generally slimy and smooth to the touch. However, as wallpaper ages, it begins to lose its adhesive, falling from the wall. It begins to curl, feel stiff, and is rough to the touch. This fish is battered and venerable (8). These descriptive words challenge the reader s expectations of what a fish should feel like and express that the fish is old and worn out, just like wallpaper that has been hung in a house for years; bumped, scratched, drawn on, and washed over and over. The reader can take personal knowledge and experience with familiar old or ancient wallpaper and understand what it would be like to touch this fish, to feel its rough skin that has experienced as much as their own wallpaper. Olfactory imagery towards the end of the poem brings to mind for each reader a time when each of them felt repulsed or uncomfortable in their surroundings. The following images bring certain smells to mind, from the pool of bilge / where oil had spread a rainbow / around the rusted engine (68-70). The word bilge is very close to bile and therefore has a negative connotation; they are, in fact, one right after the other in the dictionary. Bilge water, or a bilge pool, refers to the water that collects in the lowest part of the inner hull of a boat. The reader can imagine the smell of the stale water that has collected in the hull, and it reminds him of bile and the smell of vomit. The rusted engine also recalls a smell to the reader. Rust has a distinct, metallic smell, similar to blood, which draws the reader back to the beginning of the poem and the fish s gills fresh and crisp with blood. The olfactory images in this poem recall moments of disgust or discomfort in the reader, again creating that personal relationship.

3 3 Bishop s primary literary device in this poem is visual imagery. Her vivid descriptions are numerous and elicit readers to create amazing images in his or her mind while reading. The most striking visual illustration of the fish is also expressive in diction. The dramatic reds and blacks / of his shiny entrails, / and the pink swim- bladder / like a big peony (30-33). Entrails is used in lieu of intestines, and for good reason. Entrails makes use of the A/I diphthong forming a longer and more pleasant sound than intestines, which contains short and harsh syllables. The reader appreciates that the author employs words that are easier on the ears. In her description of the entrails, Bishop chose the word shiny, which is odd, because shiny is not an adjective that is generally used to describe the internal organs of animals and therefore allows the reader to think of the fish as beautiful. In this same passage from lines 30-33, Bishop s use of colors constructs a descriptive picture of the swim bladder and entrails. Mentioning that the swim bladder is pink and that the entrails are red and black builds a colorful picture of the fish s insides, making the comparison of these body parts to a giant peony more believable. The image of a giant peony, which is considered a double flower, with red outer petals and pink inner petals is brought to the mind of the reader when it is compared to the entrails and bladder of the fish. Through the descriptive visual imagery, the reader sees the beauty in even seemingly, one of the most ugly parts of the animal. Visual imagery describes the fish s facial features and therefore, the reader gains respect for the fish. First, she describes the eyes; they are shallow, yellow, and the irises were packed and backed with tarnished tinfoil. Fish eyes are generally beautiful and the irises have a metallic shine, however, this fish has been battered (8) and looks

4 4 homely (9). The metallic shine in this fish s eyes has been reduced to nothing more than tinfoil that has been used and reused, crinkled and straightened, and touched so many times that it s coloring has begun to deteriorate. This fish has been hooked five times, but each time, the thread broke and he got away (60). Ralph Waldo Emerson said, The eyes indicate the antiquity of the soul. This well- known quote brings the reader to think about what the fish s eyes have seen and experienced. The reader comes to respect and admire the fish because of its experience and cunning. Nineteen of the seventy- six, or twenty- five percent of the lines, in this poem are devoted to the fish s mouth, more than any other body part. This shows that Bishop wanted her audience to fully understand and be able to visualize it. She first describes it as grim, wet, and weaponlike (50). The reader does not fashion the lip of a fish as a weapon until after Bishop explains that five big hooks grown firmly in his mouth (54-55) At first, the reader feels confused, but at the same time somewhat threatened by the grim and weaponlike lip of the fish. However, after reading about the hooks having grown into his mouth, the readers gain back the compassion they once had for the fish. One last image about the mouth is a metaphor, a five- haired beard of wisdom (65). Beards are generally associated with wisdom and age, so this image is an excellent illustration of the achievement of the fish, as he was met with at least five other fishermen and outsmarted them. The vivid imagery in Elizabeth Bishop s The Fish is a literary feast for the aesthetic reader. She utilizes olfactory, auditory, tactile, and visual imagery to create a character, the fish, with which the reader can form a personal relationship. Word choice and figurative language also add quality to this poem. Through imagery, readers appreciate the

5 5 magnificent skill of the poet and her use of the English language, as well as enjoy the way the poem is personally related to each person individually. Overall, the reader finds the joy in poetry through realizing that the point of aesthetic reading isn t to take away some profound message or theme, it is merely for the enjoyment and pleasure of reading. Works Cited Guerin, Wilfred L. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford UP, Print.

6 6 Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, Print.