"Shapes like full-blown roses" -A line that's stuck with me all these many years since I first stumbled upon this poem. I was 20 and was in a poetry class at the University of Montana. I loved writing poetry back then but felt extremely out of place in the class. I fumbled my way through the course and was happy to know that I'd likely be getting a good grade so long as I did well on our final. The final was pretty straight forward, we had to choose a poem and recite it from memory. I had no idea what poem to pick, so I took our poetry text book and randomly turned to a page. The page was Elizabeth Bishops The Fish. Doh! Why couldn't it have landed on a shorter poem? I memorized it and read it successfully in front of my peers and professor. Ever since then, I have had a fond affection for the poem and as I get older I can relate to and feel even more admiration for that fantastic fish. Great poem and a very nice reading. We say the word "venerable" differently :)