Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN EGYPTIAN PULLED GLASS BOTTLE IN THE SHAPE OF A FISH by MARIANNE MOORE

Poet Analysis

First Line: HERE WE HAVE THIRST
Last Line: WHOSE SCALES TURN ASIDE THE SUN'S SWORD BY THEIR POLISH.
Subject(s): BOTTLES; FISH & FISHING; ANGLERS;
Here we have thirst
and patience, from the first,
and art, as in a wave held up for us to see
in its essential perpendicularity;

not brittle but
intense -- the spectrum, that
spectacular and nimble animal the fish,
whose scales turn aside the sun's sword by their polish.


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