"His brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper...with shapes like full-blown roses" (10-13).
"He was speckled with barnacles, fine rosettes of lime, and infested with tiny white sea-lice" (16-19).
"And then i saw that from his lower lip- if you could call it a lip -grim, wet, and weaponlike" (47-50).
After a few reads, and the exercises on symbols and imagery, I noticed how now and then she associated the fish as a "he" (he, his, him). The imagery and descriptions, (agreeing with Michael C.) sometimes grew long, and although at times clever, often redundant. But the point of the symbols and the imagery was to give the fish a sense of human life, it was being personified, to give the reader an easier time to relate with and decide his/her meaning of the entire poem.
Bishop's constant condescending and immediate appreciation gave me a sense of pity, respect and at then, acceptance. I think the fish symbolizes something or someone that was once lost. I.e. a significant other, after an unfortunate break up, one battles with their love and admiration over the person and equally hating and loathing, but at the end, we all sit and reminisce at the times shared and we grow and learn. Slowly letting them go.
...but that's just what I think...
