We readers have no concrete information about the speaker’s age, gender, class background, or racial identity. That said, throughout the poem we do bear witness to the unique quality of the speaker’s attention. Whoever the speaker is, they are someone with a keen eye and a penchant for precise detail. Furthermore, their precision is not cold and objective. Instead, it’s driven by warm curiosity and filled with a sense of wonder. Take the following passage, lines 34–44, as an example:

     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.
     They shifted a little, but not
     to return my stare.
     —It was more like the tipping
     of an object toward the light.

In these lines, the speaker focuses intensely on the fish’s eyes. They initially consider the size of these eyes, comparing them to their own eyes. Next, they carefully and evocatively describe the physical appearance of the fish’s eyes. But the speaker doesn’t stop at mere description. As they look into the fish’s eyes, they track the strange familiarity of “his” gaze. From this observation they conclude that the fish isn’t looking in the same way they do, but rather is simply “tipping . . . toward the light.” The speaker’s observational skills and keenness of perception reveal a deep fascination with and sensitivity to the natural world.

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