The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop

In the poem "The Fish" the fisherman catches a big fish. The fisherman held it half out of the water by the boat and the fish wasn't fighting. The fish was brown and skin hung in stripes like ancient wallpaper as it stated in the poem. (Line 10) This fish they could tell was old and it was infested with white sea-lice. The fish was worn out breathing hard and was frightened. The fisherman in line 34 states how he looked in the fishes eyes and sees the fear, worn out look; saying I just want to give up. "I looked into his eyes/ which were far larger than mine/ but shallower, and yellowed, the irises backed and packed with tarnished tinfoil seen through the lenses/ of old scratched isinglass." The fisherman admired his sad face, felt sorry for him. Then noticed the lower lip of the fish and realized why he had given up and wanted to be caught. There the evidence has shown about five hooks hanging from his lip with old fishing line attached where he had broken loose many times. All five of these hooks embedded into his lip where it just healed with time. It's explained "as the five haired beard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw" in the poem. The fisherman stared at the fish knowing what he was going to do but the noticed how the rust and oil from the old engine had made a rainbow around the fish. He then just says “until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And I let the fish go." So the fisherman seen how pretty, old and what the fish has been through so he wanted the fish to live life; for he earned it. I’m no fisherman because it bores me but after reading this poem I realized that there are fisherman who aren’t just out there for the sport and good taste of the fish, theirs some with good hearts. This fisherman felt sorry and realized that if he broke loose from five other fishermen then he deserves to be cut loose. Just because the fish has nothing else to fight for resulting in no more energy doesn’t mean that was a successful catch and something to brag about. The fun in fishing I think would have to fight for what you catch because then you can say you’re a good fisherman.