The Fish
Dark the sea was: but I saw him,One great head with goggle eyes,Like a diabolic cherubFlying in those fallen skies.
I have heard the hoarse deniers,I have known the wordy wars;I have seen a man, by shouting,Seek to orphan all the stars.
I have seen a fool half-fashionedBorrow from the heavens a tongue,So to curse them more at leisure----And I trod him not as dung.
For I saw that finny goblinHidden in the abyss untrod;And I knew there can be laughterOn the secret face of God.
Blow the trumpets, crown the sages,Bring the age by reason fed!(He that sitteth in the heavens,'He shall laugh'--the prophet said.)
Words in this poem
- goggle v. i.
- To roll the eyes; to stare. [Cf. Ir. & Gael. gog a nod, slight motion.]
- diabolic a.
- Pertaining to the devil; resembling, or appropriate, or appropriate to, the devil; devilish; infernal; impious; atrocious; nefarious; outrageously wicked; as, a diabolic or diabolical temper or act. [L. diabolicus, Gr. diabolique. See Devil.]
- cherub n.
- A mysterious composite being, the winged footstool and chariot of the Almighty, described in Ezekiel i. and x. [Heb. kerub.]
- borrow v. t.
- To receive from another as a loan, with the implied or expressed intention of returning the identical article or its equivalent in kind; -- the opposite of lend. [OE. borwen, AS. borgian, fr. borg, borh, pledge; akin to D. borg, G. borg; prob. fr. root of AS. beorgan to protect. Borough.]
- finny a.
- Having, or abounding in, fins, as fishes; pertaining to fishes.
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Fish is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Wild Knight and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #12037; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: G. K. Chesterton, The Fish, in The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12037, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/chesterton-wild-knight/the-fish.html, id L17129.
Form and metre
The Fish is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-A him · eyesA · cherub · skiesA
- 2 AA-A deniersA · warsA · shouting · starsA
- 3 -A-A fashioned · tongueA · leisure · dungA
- 4 -A-A goblin · untrodA · laughter · godA
- 5 -A-A sages · fedA · heavens · saidA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Dark the sea was: but I saw him, | 8 | ········ |
| One great head with goggle eyes, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Like a diabolic cherub | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Flying in those fallen skies. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| I have heard the hoarse deniers, | 7 | ······· |
| I have known the wordy wars; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| I have seen a man, by shouting, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Seek to orphan all the stars. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| I have seen a fool half-fashioned | 9 | ······/˘˘ |
| Borrow from the heavens a tongue, | 8 | /···/˘·· |
| So to curse them more at leisure-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| --And I trod him not as dung. | 7 | ······· |
| For I saw that finny goblin | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Hidden in the abyss untrod; | 8 | /˘··˘/·· |
| And I knew there can be laughter | 8 | ······/˘ |
| On the secret face of God. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Blow the trumpets, crown the sages, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Bring the age by reason fed! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| (He that sitteth in the heavens, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| 'He shall laugh'--the prophet said.) | 7 | ····/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.