Elizabeth Bishop "The Fish"

Elizabeth Bishop takes an ordinary activity that almost everyone can relate to and paints a beautiful picture with the words used. She also makes the reader feel compassionate about the fish with an interesting discovery at the end. She describes the fish as being extremely old when she says, "his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper." (Bishop 1979) More importantly after she had caught the fish she noticed that the fish had had five previous hooks and fishing lines lodged in its mouth. This interesting fact suggested that the fish had fought some previous battles and escaped from being caught. However, she explains in the beginning that the fish hadn't fought at all. Could we summarize that the fish had given up on life? Had he lived a satisfying life and felt that now was his time? Bishop felt differently, she had sympathized with the fish and let it go as to say that the fish deserved it for fighting such hard battles in the past. With Bishop letting this fish go makes a statement to all who read this poem. The statement is that what you do in your past, such as putting up fights when trying to be caught, can and will pay off in the end. Just as the fish was let go you will recieve benefits or rewards later in life for acts that you preform now.