Analysis Of Mark Doty's A Display Of Mackerel

Imagine yourself in a world where with every action completed, a question was raised. Does the outcome of that action get devoted to the good of society, or does it get bestowed upon the completers and they must accept the consequences of it by themselves? This debate between individualism and collectivism has made philosophers and politicians alike ponder for generations. However, it’s not uncommon for writers to try and uncover the secrets of this timeless question, and Mark Doty does so well in his poem, “A Display of Mackerel”. Doty expresses his feelings at length about the two ideologies and what he feels humans’ ultimate goals should be in their existence. The realization that Doty reaches towards the end of “A Display of Mackerel” is that being a subdivision of a …show more content…
His mastery of the tercet form of poetry and free verse, allow him to express his views through sights that he greatly admires, and in the case of this poem, the mackerel. He describes them as “Splendor, and splendor, / and not a one in any way / distinguished from the other / --nothing about them / of individuality”. This description alludes to the fact that Doty sees the fish as a collective group, because he uses the plural word “them” and clearly negates the illusion that these fish have any individuality to them at all. Even while studying the fish carefully, he doesn’t notice individual fish because they look so magnificent as a group. On the next line he proceeds to elaborate on his description by saying that the mackerel are “Instead / ... all exact expressions / of the one soul,”. Doty believes that although one mackerel may be attractive by itself, the entire picture is even more beautiful. Think of how a single puzzle piece contributes to the larger picture of a puzzle put together. This is the message that Doty is trying to