How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and Other Woodcuts · Chapter
The Pipe‑fish; The Sea‑gar explained
A brief cautionary verse warning against the mistake of smoking a herring, and advising the reader to instead consider the pipe-fish and the long sea-gar when smoking after-dinner fish.
What happens
A brief cautionary verse warning against the mistake of smoking a herring, and advising the reader to instead consider the pipe-fish and the long sea-gar when smoking after-dinner fish.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
- Setup
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
The emotional and psychological peak occurs in the tension between the Ibis’s preserved, sacred death and the…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Wordplay and Homophones
The chapter plays on the homophonic similarity between 'pipe-fish' and 'pipe' (for smoking), and 'sea-gar' and 'cigar', creating a humorous confusion between fish names and smoking implements.
- Humor and Absurdity
The absurd premise of smoking a herring as a 'lam-en-table mistake' and the playful substitution of pipe-fish and sea-gar for typical smoking items exemplifies the chapter's whimsical humor.
Key passages
“To smoke a herring is to make A most lam‑ en ‑table mistake”
Smoking a herring is a very regrettable error.
The line uses a pun on 'lamentable' split across syllables to emphasize the foolishness of the action.
“Bear this in mind when next you wish To smoke your after‑dinner fish.”
Remember this advice the next time you want to smoke fish after your meal.
The couplet delivers the chapter's moral in a direct, memorable way.
