The Fish: Symbols | SparkNotes

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

The Fish

The titular fish in Bishop’s poem is a survivor. When the speaker first pulls “him” out of the water, they see that he’s quite old. They notice how his skin looks worn “like ancient wallpaper” (line 11), complete with a pattern that has been “stained and lost through age” (line 15). Also speckling his skin are numerous crustaceans—“barnacles” (line 16) and “sea-lice” (line 19)—that have accumulated over time. Then, upon closer inspection, the speaker finds five hooks lodged in his jaw, each attached to a separate fish-line. This discovery demonstrates that the fish isn’t just old; he has also evaded capture many times, persevering in the face of numerous near-death experiences. In this way, the fish comes to symbolize resilience and endurance. The speaker suggests as much when, in lines 61–64, they liken the various lines dangling from the fish’s mouth to:

medals with their ribbons
frayed and wavering,
a five-haired beard of wisdom
trailing from his aching jaw.

The word “medals” evokes the honors that soldiers receive for acting bravely in spite of danger. The image of the fish lines as “a five-haired beard of wisdom” also conveys the speaker’s admiration for his age and experience. In the end, it’s partly out of respect for the fish’s sheer ability to endure that the speaker decides to release him.

Rainbows

At the end of the poem, the speaker describes how the oil on the water’s surface creates a rainbow pattern that illuminates everything in the boat. With a jubilant cry, the speaker announces that “everything / was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!” (lines 74–75). Traditionally, rainbows are often associated with concepts like hope, beauty, and abundance. In Bishop’s poem, however, the rainbows have a more complex symbolic significance. For example, consider how the profusion of rainbows coincides with the speaker’s decision to let the fish go. The speaker doesn’t liberate the fish because the rainbows are beautiful. Instead, the speaker sets the fish free partly because of the feeling the rainbows inspire in them. Though we can’t know exactly what the speaker is feeling at that moment, the rainbows give us an important clue. Throughout the poem, the speaker uses color words to describe different parts of the fish and the boat. Taken together, these color words collectively make up a rainbow. Yet it’s only at the end that the individual colors come together in a single pattern. In this sense, the rainbows represent the ephemeral—yet triumphant—feeling associated with a particular moment when everything seems miraculously to come together.

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