Understanding Marianne Moore’s Sea: As Seen in “The Fish”

In Jerrald Ranta’s article, “Marianne Moore’s Sea and the Sentence,” Moore’s “sea-poems” are broken down both formally and in terms of content. Ranta proposes, “Marianne Moore’s poetic depiction of the sea offers special challenges to her readers”(245). She describes the disparity that exists between the enormity of the sea compared to the specific way Moore depicts elements of the sea, such as the detailed descriptions of “the fish, water like black jade, an injured mussel, barnacles, a wave, sunlight, a cliff” in “The Fish” (245). Ranta is concerned that critics are giving too much attention to Moore’s sea when, in fact, her poetry is much more dedicated to the wave. Seen in this light, “there is a definite attempt to give the movement and rhythm of the poem over as much as possible to the naturalistic action of the sea” (247).

Formally, Ranta finds value in the way Moore uses syntax and prosody to solidify the experience of the wave and its function. She says, “Moore’s waves are more often than not prosodically or formally implied rather than directly described or stated” (246-247). In a poem like “The Fish,” we can seen the wave being built by “an accumulation of small, measured, formal units” (248). When looking at the poem itself on the page, it seems as if the words are moving like a wave down the page. Content-wise, Ranta wonders if this structure is intended to communicate a sense of a repetitive “truth” that beats along with the rhythm of the poem. Regardless of the interpretation, Ranta is convinced that “the formal implication of wave brings meaning into the poem” (250). Moreover, Ranta is also interested in the variation that exists across all four of Moore’s “sea-poems”- “Sojourn the Whale,” “The Fish,” “The Grave,” and “Novices.” She believes it is important to look at these poems together because “it allows us to see in these poems a great deal of the uniformity in variety, and variety in uniformity, that is a fact of the sea” (252). The same-ness, yet distinct differences in these poems mimic the personality of the sea itself. Ranta believes that Moore is a master at bringing the sea to life in a quirky, modern way that should not be generalized or understated.