The Goose Fish

The poem starts out as an idyllic scene: on the shore by moonlight, a couple cannot contain their passion for each other. They make love on the sand and for a short while they are in an ecstasy of delight. They feel like they have entered a kind of paradise, or that paradise has embraced them. It does not take long, however, for discomforting feelings, such as embarrassment, shame, and guilt to make their presence felt. When they feel “embarrassed in each other’s sight” (Line 13) they resemble Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden after they have eaten the apple and become aware that they are naked (book of Genesis, chapter 3). They are ashamed and try to hide from God, who will soon expel them from paradise for their disobedience. In the case of the unnamed couple in the poem, the accuser is not God but the dead goose fish. When it shows up, it is as if “the world has found them out” (Line 16), and their guilt and shame is on full view. One aspect of the fish’s appearance, which is both “peaceful and obscene” (Line 29), reflects the double consciousness of the lovers regarding their love and the sexual expression of it.