[1] The poem was later included in Moore's 1921 collection Observations, where it appeared alongside "Reinforcements".
The placing of the two poems in the book has been interpreted by critic John Slatin as a commentary by Moore on World War I, due to her brother's service as a chaplain in the United States Navy.
"The Fish" was written following Moore's holiday with her mother, Mary, and her brother John to Monhegan, Maine, in the Summer of 1917.
[2] John Warner Moore met his future wife, Constance, on the trip, and subsequently broke off a previous engagement to another woman, Alice Benjamin Mackenzie.
John later wrote to his mother that "My crime...is that while I would count it nothing to die for you, I have refused to live for you".