Text of Audio on Bishop's Poems

The Fish

                Students sometimes refer to the speaker of this poem by using masculine pronouns. Since we don’t know for sure who the speaker is, we COULD assume a man. But since the writer is a woman and a scientist who traveled the world, the speaker could be a woman. Either way, the poem is the same; the fish is the star of the story. He is described as “tremendous”, very heavy, “battered and venerable.” So the fish is admirable, for certain. But the description in the specifics of his appearance clarify what has happened to the fish in the past that causes him to not fight at all. His skin is falling off and has barnacles; but the lines attached to the fish’s lip tell the tale. There are five hooks, with lines attached, etc., “like medals with their ribbons,” which suggest military honor. That suggestion of military decoration and his age make the fish more than a fish, more like a war hero. So it is only appropriate that the fisher person lets the fish go. See the last line of the poem for confirmation.

In the Waiting Room

                This poem is supposed to be a remembrance from Bishop’s childhood. The little girl says she looked at a National Geographic magazine while she waited for her aunt at the dentist office. We have all seen NG magazines. About 50 years ago these magazines often had pictures of native tribes from South America or Africa. Look at the pictures that catch her attention: cannibals taking a dead man to cook over a fire, women with decorated necks, naked women. She does not even realize she has screamed at first, not because she is hurt, but because she realizes suddenly that she is one “of them.” She may mean one of the woman or one of the people the cannibals will eat or one of anybody. She remembers that the war is still going on—1918 (World War I). So maybe she realizes she is human, and that there is a realization of how painful life can be. Why do you think she screamed?