Gone Fishin' ("The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop)

'The Fish' by Elizabeth Bishop is saturated with vivid imagery and abundant description, which help the reader visualize the action. Bishop's use of imagery, narration, and tone allow the reader to visualize the fish and create a bond with him, a bond in which the reader has a great deal of admiration for the fish's plight. The mental pictures created are, in fact, so brilliant that the reader believes incident actually happened to a real …

…gotten away five times before. The reader's admiration also reaches this level of respect, in that the fish had been caught five times previously and still managed to be alive. The fish's 'badges of courage,' described by Bishop, allowed the reader to grow and create a bond with the fish and understand his life. The imagery and description were the vital tools in implanting this growing admiration for something as trivial as a fish.