Start- 10:00 AM End- 12:00 PM (Grammatical Errors Removed)

(love song, with two goldfish)

(He's a drifter, always floating around her, has nowhere else to go. He wishes she would sing, not much, just the scales; or take some notice, give him the fish eye.)

(Bounded by round walls she makes fish eyes and kissy lips at him, darts behind pebbles, swallows his charms hook, line and sinker)

(He's bowled over. He would take her to the ocean, they could count the waves. There, in the submarine silence, they would share their deepest secrets. Dive for pearls like stars.)

(But her love's since gone belly-up. His heart sinks like a fish. He drinks like a stone. Drowns those sorrows, stares emptily through glass.)

(the reason, she said she wanted) (and he could not give) a life beyond the (bowl) By Grace Chua QLRS Vol. 2 No. 2 Jan 2003

I. B. Kid Burrus, Period 5 December 11, 2012

Start- 10:00 AM End- 12:00 PM (grammatical errors removed)

In the poem (love song, with two fish), written in 2003 by Grace Chua as part of the collection QLRS Vol. 2 No. 2, the thoughts and actions of two fish contained within a round fishbowl highlight many intricacies of love in the bowl. The male fish shows a deep love for the female fish, which cannot be returned by the female at the end of the poem. An important idea driving this poem is that the love between the two “fish” is metaphorical, and often creates parallel meanings of love that are present between two human beings. At the beginning of the poem, the male fish is described as “a drifter/floating around her, / [having] nowhere else to go”. The term drifter may refer to the drifting motion of the fish but more likely refers to a person who waits and moves without a specific purpose; the parallelism struck between the metaphoric action of the fish and the human terminology implied already creates an initial sense of comparison that may be used by the reader to reflect on the poem with a sense of familiarity with the process that takes place. In Grace Chua’s poem (love song, with two fish), a central metaphor is aided by pun, enjambment, specific use of punctuation, and imagery to explain the thoughts and feelings that drive love; the reader can feel a sense of familiarity in the emotions of love that are evoked, and come to empathize with the “fish” love in a reflective and personal way.

The poem introduces a sense of flirtatious love and comedy initially, by creating a metaphorical language that almost teases love; the reader is led to make personal associations with the amiability between the fish. In the term “he’s a drifter, always/floating around her” we can follow our idea of parallelism between the fish’ action and human emotion by noting the enjambment following the word “always”. The dual meaning created by the enjambment is that the character is consistently without specific purpose, remaining a “drifter”, and that he constantly pursues, or “[floats] around” a female to whom he is attracted. We gain insight into a character that is often noncommittal and unbound by any obligations, yet finds a sense of interest in pursuing a love. As the next enjambment continues, when he “[has]/nowhere else to go” the separation between the two lines creates a sense of resignation for the “fish” and sparks empathy from within the reader as we acknowledge a kind of trapped state. This sense of resignation then leads into a comedic sense of desire as the “fish” states that “he wishes/she would sing, not much, just the scales”; this infatuation with the female’s voice, a characteristic that would be seen in human love, also creates a pun as “the scales” may represent the outer appearance of a fish. The infatuation is thus expressed by acknowledging the female character’s beauty, and though it is comedic for the reader, it does spark a sense of understanding and familiarity with the concept of the relationship and love expressed. After creating this image of the male’s desire and emotions, and relating this with the human characteristics, the poem then makes a lighthearted and very flirtatious interaction present between male and female, shadowing the truths of human romantic relationships.

The imagery of the second stanza show a lovable sense of happy interaction between two characters as the female responds to the male’s interest in the goldfish bowl; the reader thus finds happiness in this sense of companionship described, but also acknowledges its mostly temporary and passionate nature. When the female fish “makes fish eyes/and kissy lips” at the male fish, the recognizable image of a goldfish pursing its lips closed and open is conjured, as well as its constant wide-eyed facial expression. Though this is simply how a goldfish appears to look, we can use this idea to show that the love and flirtatious expressions are driven by human emotions, not by the unchanging expression of a goldfish; the element of imagery is comedic and aids with the use of pun to show the reader the very human motions of flirtation and its romantic silliness, and create a nostalgic and understanding response. As the fish “darts/behind pebbles”, the enjambment separating the fish’s movement and hiding place aid in creating an image of playfulness as the reader notes the purposefully reluctant nature of the character as a way of following a personal and human romance. In the most telling pun of the stanza, as the female fish “swallows/his charms hook, line, and sinker” we find that only the physical image of swallowing is relatable to the fish, as the attraction to the other character’s charms is very human and highlights a very personal and human interaction, felt by the reader.

The next stanza creates an impression of wistfulness and dreaming through additional metaphor, which will associate the reader with feelings of romance, desire, and intimacy.

By using an idea of going to the ocean, the two fish highlight a sense of desire through metaphor, which is captured personally by the reader as the acknowledgement of a couple’s dreams and wishes. By saying “he would/take her to the ocean, they could/ count the waves” the poem expresses desire partly through the male fish’s point of view, because he is trapped in an isolated tank of water and thus shows a desire to join the freedom of a moving ocean with a companion; in parallel, the symbolism and romance of the ocean, and the view of counting the waves (which could only be experienced by watching on the beach as humans do, not by fish swimming in the water) shows a deep human romance, rather than that of two fish, and creates wistfulness within the reader. The alliteration provided by “There, / in the submarine silence” offers an “s” sound, creating a hushed and intimate setting that imparts a sense of calm on the reader. Also, by saying that the two fish would “dive for pearls/like stars” a contrast is created between the riches of the sky and the deep sea as a simile expresses the fishes’ desires; the inclusion of stars highlights a more human wistfulness and sparks quiet nostalgia and a sense of romance within the reader. The next stanza (stanza 4) expresses a change in tone as the male fish loses the female’s love and lives in a state of melancholy, creating deep empathy from within the reader.

The fourth stanza of the poem finally breaks the pattern of the central metaphor as it is stated that “her love’s since gone belly up. His heart sinks/ like a fish”. The simile expressed finally acknowledges the man behind the romantic notions, and the fish is dispelled in a technique that shows that its purpose was for describing the man’s love and that it is now gone; the sudden change in tone creates a sympathetic, human response from within the reader as the character expressing the love becomes vulnerable and truly exposed from behind the metaphor. By saying that he “drowns those sorrows, /stares emptily through glass” there is still a sense of metaphor that may impart the image of a fish trapped behind the glass of its fishbowl; however, the primary idea is that of a man who has sought alcohol as a respite from the sadness, and hopelessly considers the empty glass that sits before him. The image is lonely and resigned, and creates sympathy from the reader and a sense of regret that the love is gone.

The most poignant part of the poem is expressed when the reasons for the loss of love between the man and the woman are revealed metaphorically, and elicit a final sense of relatability to the persona and feelings of regret from an understanding reader. The use of punctuation in the last stanza serves to physically separate the male and female personae and highlight to a deep extent the cause for the rift between them; the physical use of punctuation guides the reader towards a sad realization about the relationship.

First, the two lines “(the reason, she said/she wanted)”, followed by “(and he could not give)” are separated parenthetically and by different lines, showing that a quality lacking within the man was a cause for the woman’s dissatisfaction and physical separation from him; it shows the reader that the cause for the rift is made primarily from the woman’s unhappy state in the relationship, and garners sympathy toward the male character. The reason for the female’s departure, also punctuated deliberately, is that the male could not provide “a life/beyond the/

(bowl)”. The enjambment heightens the sense of drama seen in the words, and aids in showing the continuously bound and restricted state of the male persona; “a life/ beyond the” is the only part of the poem unbound by parenthesis, highlighting the woman’s desire to surpass boundaries. However, by reintroducing the parenthesis into the final line and word “(bowl)”, we are brought back to the restrictive life of the man, who could not provide the sense of freedom seen as essential to the woman; the reader feels a final sense of resignation as the process of pursued, obtained, and ultimately lost love is experienced.

The use of fish within Grace Chua’s poem (love song, with two goldfish) became of mechanism with which the reader could relate himself to the process of love, noting the initial infatuation, silly romance, wistful experiences, and loss and vulnerability that serve within the process. Though many elements of this poem are comedic and consist of puns that aid in the lighthearted love describing the man and woman leading the ideas of the poem, the loss of central metaphor produced a stripped down and final image of love in a failed state. Love ceased to be mutual within the poem, and its end was driven by the desires that could not be met in the woman’s point of view. These ideas of dissatisfaction and desire overshadow the more superficial notions of love and call into question the reality and necessities of humans: deep desires that drive their search for love.