"The Fish" and "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop are two poems written at two different stages of the poet's life. The two poems are very different. "The Fish" was written while Bishop was in her thirties, and "One Art was written during her sixties. "The Fish" is filled with poetic images all for the reason of making a powerful point, whereas "One Art" is more about dealing with loss, especially that of loved ones.

"The Fish" was written to provoke a point while giving the reader a powerful set of images and details about the fish, making it into not only a poem with a purpose, but also a poem for the sake of visual language. Bishop, at first, gives the reader an adjective such as "tremendous" to describe the fish. Usually when told grandpa's tales of catching humongous fish, "tremendous" is a positive word--so positive that the...