Analysis of We Fish

Herman Melville 1819 – 1891



We fish, we fish, we merrily swim,
We care not for friend nor for foe.
Our fins are stout,
Our tails are out,
As through the seas we go.

Fish, Fish, we are fish with red gills;
Naught disturbs us, our blood is at zero:
We are buoyant because of our bags,
Being many, each fish is a hero.
We care not what is it, this life
That we follow, this phantom unknown;
To swim, it's exceedingly pleasant,--
So swim away, making a foam.
This strange looking thing by our side,
Not for safety, around it we flee:--
Its shadow's so shady, that's all,--
We only swim under its lee.
And as for the eels there above,
And as for the fowls of the air,
We care not for them nor their ways,
As we cheerily glide afar!

We fish, we fish, we merrily swim,
We care not for friend nor for foe:
Our fins are stout,
Our tails are out,
As through the seas we go.


Scheme ABCCB xbxbxxxxxdxdxxxx ABCCB
Poetic Form
Metre 111111001 11111111 10111 10111 110111 11111111 10111011110 1110011101 1010111010 11111111 111011001 111010010 11011001 111011101 111001111 1111011 11011011 01101101 01101101 11111111 111101 111111001 11111111 10111 10111 110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 818
Words 172
Sentences 8
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 16, 5
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 207
Words per stanza (avg) 56
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

52 sec read
70

Herman Melville

Herman Melville was an American writer best known for the novel Moby-Dick. more…

All Herman Melville poems | Herman Melville Books

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