“I caught a tremendous fish and held him beside the boat half out of water, with my hook fast in a corner of his mouth. He didn't fight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I stared and stared and victory filled up the little rented boat from the pool of bilge where oil had spread a rainbow around the rusted engine to the bailer rusted orange, the sun-cracked thwarts the oarlocks on their strings, the gunnels-until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And I let the fish go.” LittlesFightingWaterHalfSunVictoryMouthsFilledCaughtFishesCornersSpreadOilBoatStringsEnginesPoolRainbowOrangeHookCrackedFilled Up Author:Elizabeth Bishop
“And as to experience-well, think how little some good poets have had, or how much some bad ones have.” ThinkingWritingWellsLittlesPoet Author:Elizabeth Bishop
“Bishop on "At the Fishhouses"At the last minute, after I'd had a chance to do a little research in Cape Breton, I foundI'd said codfish scales once when it should have been herring scales. I hope theycorrected it all right.2Quite a few lines of "At the Fishhouses" came to me in a dream, and the scene- whichwas real enough, I'd recently been there-but the old man and the conversation, etc.,were all in a later dream” MenShouldLittlesHas BeensSaidRealEnoughDreamLastsLinesChanceMinutesSceneConversationResearchShould HaveScalesEtcOld ManShould Have BeenBishopsCapesLast MinuteHerringCape Breton Author:Elizabeth Bishop
