IN THE SHAPE OF A FISH
Here we have thirst
and patience, from the first,
and art, as in a wave held up for us to see
in its essential perpendicularity;
not brittle but
intense—the spectrum, that
spectacular and nimble animal the fish,
whose scales turn aside the sun's sword by their polish.
Here we have thirst
and patience, from the first,
and art, as in a wave held up for us to see
in its essential perpendicularity;
not brittle but
intense—the spectrum, that
spectacular and nimble animal the fish,
whose scales turn aside the sun's sword by their polish.
Source of the text - Marianne Moore, The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore. London: Faber and Faber, 1956, page 83.
TJB: Model bottle. Describing an ancient object with crisp rhyme, we move from scientific to mythological. But really, why “thirst”? Or “patience”?
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