Marianne Moore. The Fish. Alfred Kreymborg, ed. 1920. Others for 1919

Alfred Kreymborg, ed. Others for 1919. 1920.

The Fish

By Marianne Moore


WADE
through black jade.
Of the crow blue mussel shells, one
keeps
adjusting the ash heaps;	5
opening and shutting itself like

an
injured fan.
The barnacles which encrust the
side	10
of the wave, cannot hide
there; for the submerged shafts of the

sun,
split like spun
glass, move themselves with spotlight swift-	15
ness
into the crevices—
in and out, illuminating

the
turquoise sea	20
of bodies. The water drives a
wedge
of iron into the edge
of the cliff, whereupon the stars

pink	25
rice grains, ink
bespattered jelly-fish, crabs like
green
lilies and submarine
toadstools, slide each on the other.	30

All
external
marks of abuse are present on
this
defiant edifice—	35
all the physical features of

ac-
cident—lack
of cornice, dynamite grooves, burns
and	40
hatchet strokes, these things stand
out on it; the chasm side is

dead.
Repeated
evidence has proved that it can	45
live
on what can not revive
its youth. The sea grows old in it.