On the long shore, lit by the moon
To show them properly alone,
Two lovers suddenly embraced
So that their shadows were as one.
The ordinary night was graced
For them by the swift tide of blood
That silently they took at flood,
And for a little time they prized
Themselves emparadised.

Then, as if shaken by stage-fright
Beneath the hard moon’s bony light,
They stood together on the sand
Embarrassed in each other’s sight
But still conspiring hand in hand,
Until they saw, there underfoot,
As though the world had found them out,
The goose fish turning up, though dead,
His hugely grinning head.

There in the china light he lay,
Most ancient and corrupt and grey.
They hesitated at his smile,
Wondering what it seemed to say
To lovers who a little while
Before had thought to understand,
By violence upon the sand,
The only way that could be known
To make a world their own.

It was a wide and moony grin
Together peaceful and obscene;
They knew not what he would express,
So finished a comedian
He might mean failure or success,
But took it for an emblem of
Their sudden, new and guilty love
To be observed by, when they kissed,
That rigid optimist.

So he became their patriarch,
Dreadfully mild in the half-dark.
His throat that the sand seemed to choke,
His picket teeth, these left their mark
But never did explain the joke
That so amused him, lying there
While the moon went down to disappear
Along the still and tilted track
That bears the zodiac.

Analysis, meaning and summary of Howard Nemerov's poem The Goose Fish

3 Comments

  1. Bryan says:

    This poem exemplifies the conflict between love and death. As soon as the love is truly born in two people, the opportunity for the death of that love is facilitated. Death pardons none, and is especially hard on lovers.

  2. Emily says:

    When i read this poem…I think it symblifies the art of love and the point that when people know, it digs at you lyk the fish head grinning..its not a pleasant sight, and it’s lyk you konw that even though you love each other…you know that when ppl know…not everyone will approve….yeah thats what i think…and im only 15 🙂

  3. Don says:

    I don’t know much about poetry ,but I do like the kind that rhymes. I did have a good picture in mind of the atmosphere of this poem. I could picture this ugly fish that had washed up on the sand. DON.

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