42. Fishing

I have waited with a long rod

And suddenly pulled a gold-and-greenish,

lucent fish from below,

And had him fly like a halo round my head,

Lunging in the air on the line.

Unhooked his gawping, water-horny mouth,

And seen his horror-tilted eye,

His red-gold, water-precious,

mirror-flat, bright eye;

And felt him beat in my hand,

with his mucous, leaping life-throb.

                                                 D. H. Lawrence