A Jelly-Fish

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1909

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and meter

The poem presents Moore’s characteristic use of syllabics instead of stress-accented meter, as each of the poem’s six end rhymes (charm/arm [Lines 2, 4]; meant/intent [Lines 8, 12]; blue/you [Lines 16, 20]) are the final syllables of six 14-syllable units. However, within this almost invisible formal net, the line length is varied to create different effects. The opening four lines—between eight and six syllables—are a fairly standard length used by Emily Dickinson, with the rhymes falling on alternate lines. The shorter lines, which then take over the poem from Line 5 onwards, mark out Moore’s experimental status and generate a rapidly pulsing rhythm that mimics the action of the jellyfish. In the lines’ use of enjambement to create unpredictable pauses (for example: “It opens and it / Closes and you / Reach for it –” [Lines 13-15]), they anticipate the syncopated rhythms of Eliot and the jazz poetry of Langston Hughes. However, Moore shows her unwillingness to entirely abandon the traditions of lyric poetry; end rhymes still feature throughout the rest of the poem. The rhymes’ separation by a greater number of shorter lines gives them a surprising, elusive quality, mirroring the poem’s themes.

Metaphor

As a poet who became increasingly interested in writing about poetry itself (as in, for example, “Poetry”), Moore draws attention to the problematic nature of one of the most popular poetic techniques. A metaphor is the well-known literary device whereby one thing is said to “be” something else, and Lines 2 and 3 initially seem to be apt yet conventional metaphors to describe the creature: “A fluctuating charm / An amber-colored amethyst” (Lines 2-3). However, Moore then uses the next line “Inhabits it; your arm / Approaches […]” (Lines 4-5) to suggest that these metaphors are not really part of the creature; they are trying to take it over, almost like a parasite does its host. This implies that the poet’s act—of fixing a metaphorical meaning onto the jellyfish—carries an element of hostility, against which the jellyfish is entitled to resist. The jellyfish’s resistance to the metaphor is emphasized in the nine repetitions of the word “it” to refer to the creature in the course of the remaining 14 lines.

Synecdoche

Synecdoche refers to the technique of using only a part or a single aspect of something to describe the greater whole. Synecdoche occurs when “The blue” (Line 16) refers to the ocean only by a part of that ocean, i.e., its traditionally understood color. The poem then undermines the device by describing how the water “[g]rows cloudy” (Line 18), meaning it is clearly no longer blue. This act of undermining highlights a mutability and unreliability—not just of the sea, but of language and wider human structures of meaning. Additionally, the change from a clear blue sea to a cloudy medium is actually precipitated by the human observer’s impatient desire to gain unsolicited purchase on the jellyfish. This symbolic avarice or predation fits with modernism’s grave doubts over the direction of industrialized capitalist society, and it even hints at Murphy’s proto-environmentalist reading of Moore as a poet who questions human impact on the natural world (Murphy, Sean. “Poetry Spotlight: ‘A Jelly-Fish’ and ‘The Fish’ by Marianne Moore,” Pulitzer, 2021).