The mood of Elizabeth Bishop's poem "The Fish" is one of awe and respect for nature as the speaker raises the fish to the level of art.
There is a strong connection between art and nature in this poem. Much like the lake on which the speaker fishes, the poem has an ebb and flow as the number of syllables expand and contract with each line. This relationship of art to nature is also apparent in the descriptions of the speaker who regards the fish. For instance, this fish is brown with a pattern on him "like ancient wallpaper" and shapes "like full-blown roses/stained and lost through age." In fact, the more the respectful speaker examines the fish and sees "tinfoil," reds, blacks, pinks,greens, orange, isinglass, the more his/her respect increases until all images merge into "rainbow, rainbow, rainbow" in an emotional crescendo of visions, feelings, and the wonder of nature.
Indeed, the fisher who catches what may be a venerable pike is at first merely thrilled to have caught such an impressive specimen; then, upon examination of the fish, there is an appreciation of the size and magnificence of this work of nature that holds so many shapes and colors on its body. Connected with the emotion of victory that "filled up/the little rented boat," there is the awe of the entire picture of the day until "everything/ was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!" and the fish is allowed back into the water in a renewal of life and art after the multitude of images.
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