Nature often horrifies and scares us. Whether it's a snake that has the potential to kill with one bite or a raging flood that can destroy an entire city in minutes, the natural world often makes us cower at the sight of its capabilities. However, what we really fear is not an animal without legs or a large amount of water; we as human beings fear the inalienable power that nature holds, and this fear often turns into a desire to control, subjugate and destroy. However, during the period of Romanticism in the 19th century, artists worked to defeat the destructive desires surrounding nature and in doing so recognized the immense awe and respect that the world could inspire in a person through its inherent beauty. Although written after Romanticism had come and gone, Elizabeth Bishop's “The Fish” reflects much of the ideology of the period regarding power and appreciation for nature. While humans may have the power to restrain and even defeat some aspects of the natural world, Bishop, through the image of the fish, portrays nature as resilient and authoritative and ultimately reveals that we can often find much greater reward in letting is. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay We often see nature the same way the fisherman in the poem originally sees the fish. He notes that the “fish skin hung… like ancient wallpaper… stained and lost with the passage of time.” The narrator understands that the fish once had power, although only a glimpse of what he once was still exists due to his old age. Likewise, because humans have created ways to subjugate nature, such as using pesticides to protect crops or a dam to block a river, we connect the world with a worn and dying power. As we move to focus on technology and industry, we distance ourselves further and further from nature, which only further diminishes its capacity in our eyes. The fisherman continues to comment on aspects of the animal that make it less desirable, such as the fact that it is "infested with tiny white lice". At this point, he chooses to see the negative and unpleasant aspects of the fish that hinder him and his abilities. Too often we perceive only the negative aspects of nature and therefore regularly see it as burdened and burdened, and we often applaud our inventions and intelligence for bringing about that weakness. Even if humans sometimes fail to recognize it, nature has immense power that we will never be able to fully control. While the fish may appear submissive, Bishop's use of language lets his strength and impressive nature shine through. After the fisherman spends some time evaluating his catch, he realizes that “five old pieces of fishing line [and]…all their five large hooks [have] grown firmly into his mouth.” The fish wasn't caught just once and then lost or let go, but five times. When the fisherman recognizes how much the sea beast has survived and endured, he begins to understand its resilience and begins to describe it in much more admiring terms. Likewise, Romantics see through the curtain of insignificance that humans attempt to place over nature and instead understand it in light of its entire history and all that it has prevailed over. In his new perception, instead of seeing the multitude of hooks and lines as harm to the fish, the fisherman sees them as “medals with their ribbons”. The.?