It's no secret that Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop were close friends. Although written decades apart, the poems titled “The Fish” were created by both authors. Reading Bishop's poem against Moore's, we can see that both poems deal with themes of endurance in the face of greater force and the unpredictability of life. Of course, the poems are not entirely identical, with differences in form, speaker, and subject. It is important to the in-depth examination of Bishop's "The Fish" because the correspondence between her and Moore was well documented, including letters about Bishop's "The Fish." Their letter exchanges reveal Moore's influence on Bishop's poetry, as well as instances in which Bishop championed more independent choices in his writing. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Although Bishop's "The Fish" can easily be a beautiful poem on its own, its analysis with Moore in mind leads readers to underlying themes that one might not pick up on alone. The two poets met through a mutual friend in the mid-1930s and immediately became friends, corresponding by letters. As Lynn Keller notes: "The care that Bishop apparently took in writing his early letters and the descriptions they contain therefore reflects not only his desire to share intriguing or delightful experiences with Moore, but also his awareness that this correspondence offered a unique opportunity for supervised exchanges. practice writing skills” (Keller). Bishop frequently asked Moore for advice on various poems, making Moore's influence on Bishop's poetry undeniable. Keep in mind that Bishop was still a young poet when the two first met; “The older writer quickly placed her protégé's work in an anthology, writing an insightful preface to the new poems” (Sweeny). Particularly important, Bishop and Moore corresponded about Bishop's "The Fish." “I am so keen,” Bishop wrote to Moore in January 1940 (the same year Bishop's published “The Fish”), “to see some of your new poems. I am sending you a real “trifle” [“The Fish”]. I'm afraid it's very serious” (Keller). Moore responded with criticism and suggestions for change. A month later, Bishop responded: "I have read and re-read your letter since it arrived...Thank you for the wonderful postcard and very helpful comments on 'The Fish.' I did what you suggested for everything except “inspire” (if you remember), which I decided to leave as is” (Keller). Here we see how seriously Bishop took Moore's advice. Bishop begins by mentioning that she read the letter several times, and Bishop goes on (in the full version) to describe exactly what changes she, Bishop, made in response to Moore's letter. However, we also see that Bishop does not let Moore decide what changes should be adopted. In the letter mentioned, Bishop refers to what becomes the twenty-second line of “The Fish,” where she does not change the words “breathe.” This shows what an independent poet Bishop was, but one who still truly appreciated Moore's contribution. Their correspondence, in part, surely led to the publication of "The Fish" by Partisan Review in March 1940. Moore's influence on Bishop's "The Fish" is not only present in the changes Bishop made. It is important to have a sufficient understandingin-depth look at each poem, individually, in order to compare and contrast the two. “The Fish” by Marianne Moore depicts a scene in which sea creatures are exposed to the sun while the sea crashes over a cliff. The end of the poem indicates that the cliff will continue to endure while the sea and all its creatures age alongside it, thus making the cliff the most permanent object of the poem. Moore experiments with space on the page to create a poem that takes on its own physical form that has the appearance of an ebb and flow. The appearance of the poem echoes the lingering imagery of the sea which Moore describes as "a wedge/of iron across the edge of iron/of the cliff" as the poem crashes against the page margin and recedes with his withdrawals (Moore 18-20). Moore’s “The Fish” is a poem full of contrasts. The rigidity created by the form (syllabic verse combined with an ending rhyme scheme AABBCC) contrasts directly with the natural flow of the ocean that is represented in the physical appearance of the poem. There is also a contrast between the form and content of the poem: the mysterious life underwater versus the predictability of the final rhyme and syllabic verse. When the sun hits the water, it changes from “black jade” (Moore 2) to “turquoise sea” (Moore 17). The water is illuminated, an illumination that accompanies the reader's discoveries about "jellyfish...crabs...poisonous mushrooms" (Moore 23-25). Moore's "The Fish" thus describes a scene in immense detail, but the meaning of the poem is meant to extend beyond the descriptions given, as we will discuss later in this essay. Bishop's "The Fish" also contains considerable and precise detail, including a wide variety of colors that culminate in the ultimate "rainbow, rainbow, rainbow" epiphany at the end of the poem (Bishop 75). Bishop's "The Fish" tells the story of a fisherman (presumed to be a man in this essay, although Bishop is not specific) who catches "an enormous fish" (Bishop 1). He examines the fish from its scales to its eyes, including the five frayed lines and the hooks that remain lodged in its mouth. The fisherman finally decides to release the fish that has endured so much. The poem is written in free verse but contains short, controlled verses. This structure echoes the nature of the fish which is controlled by man, repeatedly hooked, but ultimately free in the sea. Bishop uses long descriptive sentences, rich in color and figurative language, which flow throughout. throughout the poem, like the sea itself. Many colors are also present in the composition: brown, lime, green, and white to name a few just in the first third of the poem. At the end of the poem, as mentioned earlier, the speaker exclaims: “everything/ was a rainbow, a rainbow, a rainbow!/ And I let go the fish” (Bishop 74-76). This final epiphany represents all the details (all the colors of the poem) coming together, and the speaker realizes that this fish has endured so much that it deserves to live. Taking the life of this fish would be a shameful act. This theme of endurance is present in Moore and Bishop's "The Fish." In addition to sharing a title, the poems also share common thematic elements. On the one hand, Moore's and Bishop's poems emphasize the alternation of predictability and unpredictability in life. Moore does this by contrasting the unknown life that lies beneath the surface of the sea with the fact that the sea will always be confined by the boundaries created by the cliff. It's unclear what lies in store for marine life, other than that the creatures will die at some point. Bishop takes Moore's original theme to a new level; what is predicted or expected is not what actually happens. Bishop expresses this. 2016.