The Eel (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Eugenio Montale
- First Published: 1956
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Nature, Europe or Europeans, Rivers or waterways, Sea or seafaring life, Animals, Fishes, Ocean, Marine animals
The Poem
“The Eel” is a lyric in free verse. It is contained in one stanza of thirty lines. The title directs the reader to the eel, whose journey is related by the poem, and raises the question of the significance of the eel, prompting the reader to ask what the poet means by centering attention upon it.
The first sixteen lines describe the journey of the eel. The eel is described leaving the cold reaches of the Baltic Sea and plunging south into Europe, eventually to reach “these shores of ours”—the Italy in which the poet is writing. The poem mentions the...
[The entire page is 1470 words long]
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