Elizabeth Bishop

Having studied the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop as part of my Leaving Cert course I would very much agree that her poetry gives us a deep insight into both her own life and life in general.

Bishop is a very personal poet, who is extremely passionate about her work. Her coloured childhood features regularly throughout. Bishop, unlike many poets, refuses to write about any random topic or issue. She will only write about something that she is truly passionate about.
Having studied an array of her work, I have noticed that, although her poetry is personal, it is also extremely universal and easy to relate to.

One of Bishop's greatest poems is “The Fish.” This is a poem where both poet and reader are uplifted by a positive, reassuring insight into human life.
She uses her keen eye for detail in noting the fish's “frightened gills.” Furthermore, domestic imagery is used when comparing the fishes “skin” to “strips of wallpaper.”
The fish, like Bishop, has lived a hard life. We are told that there was “five old pieces of fish-line” hanging from “his lower lip.”
When she catches it, she describes how it comes “straight out of water/into the terrible oxygen.” Here a link can be made with oxygen being a struggle for both the fish and Bishop, who suffered from a severe form of asthma. The poem ends on a high as we hear that Bishop “let” the fish “go.” A use of alliteration was used to describe the new mood of the poet when she reveals everything is now “rainbow, rainbow, rainbow.”
I think that, in letting the fish, both it and Bishop get a new lease on life.
Another truly personal poem of Bishop's is “Filling Station.” Here, direct references can be made to her mother who was hospitalized due to mental illness when she was young.
There is no mother in the poem, but we are constantly reminded of the need for one. The tone is maternal as we are told “oh but it is filthy” and “don't light the match/ it's a family filling station.”
The place is, overall, described as being dirty. We are told that it's “oil-soaked” and “a dirty dog” sits on “a wicker sofa.” However, we are told that it is “comfy.” The homely feeling continues as we are told of “Father wears a dirty suit” and his “greasy sons assist him.” Despite the filth described, it's clear that there is love in the poem between the them.
I also liked the assonance in the way the barrels of oil were arranged - “ESSO-so-so-so.” This repetition of the soothing “so” sound is a clever use of personification. The poet concludes that there is always someone doing their best to quietly.
The sense of family life in “Filling Station” can, again, be felt in “First Death in Nova Scotia.”
Here, Bishop is coming to terms with the death of her “little cousin Arthur.” She tries to come to terms with this by asking
“Why did he die so young/clutching his tiny lily/in the snow.”
As a child, Bishop was very observant and this allows her to create memorable imagery of even the most insignificant things. The image that stood out most to me was her description of the marble topped table as being a “white, frozen lake” and Arthur's coffin on top of it as being like “a little frosted cake.”
Additionally, the description of the lifeless loon as “cold and caressable” effectively conveys the child's confusion when confronted by death.
The simile comparing “little Arthur” to “a doll that hadn't been painted yet” is very moving as it highlights the tragedy of the child's death.
Bishop sadly concludes this poem saying that her lifeless cousin, trapped in the embrace of death and “clutching his tiny lilly” will be unable to travel “roads deep in snow.” It is the child’s perspective on death that makes this poem so poignant.

“In the Waiting Room” is another poem rooted in a childhood experience. What makes the poem particularly interesting is the manner in which it portrays the dawning of adult awareness in the young Elizabeth Bishop. Once again, the use of the first person and the conversational tone draw us into the poem: I went with Aunt Consuelo/to keep her dentist appointment”. We see that, even as a child, Bishop was alert of the world around her: “The waiting room/ was full of grown-up people, / arctics and overcoats, / lamps and magazines.” The striking memorable images of African women with “necks/ wound round and round with wire/ like the necks of lightbulbs” introduces Bishop to a wider, frightening world.
The image of their “horrifying” breasts suggests the suffering involved in raising children.
It is interesting to observe how the poets outer description leads to inner reflection. Bishops identification with the suffering of other women is suggested by the strange sense that she has her aunt's cry of pain coming from her own mouth: “Without thinking/ I was my foolish aunt.” Bishop comes to the conclusion that all women are united in suffering. It is the inevitability if this female suffering that “held us all together / or made us all just one.” This poem is, again, both wonderfully descriptive and strikingly insightful. While Bishop is aware of her own individuality, it is as if all women fuse into one in a sense of shared suffering: “But I felt you are an I, / you are an Elizabeth, / you are one of them.” Poet and reader alike are challenged by a dramatic insight which suggests that individual identity is more important than gender in the shaping of a women’s identity.

To conclude, I very much enjoyed the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop, particularly because of its moments of insight. Her unquestionable ability to probe beneath outer appearances and discover universal truths is very impressive and interesting. In terms of her style, I was struck by her remarkably vivid descriptions, unusual similes and metaphors. She is definitely a poet I genuinely enjoyed studying and is one whom I would highly recommend.
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Elizabeth Bishop is an interesting poet. She is not like other poets who narrowly deal with a small range of issues. Instead, her subject matter is very broad. She writes about what she observes. Her observations are often trivial but she still raises questions about human behaviour through them. She binds this together with her fascinating use of imagery which is very well illustrated.

Firstly, Bishop does not stick to one constant subject matter. Her work is incredibly dynamic. It varies from a day of fishing to the long wait in a "dentist's waiting room." I find that I enjoy this variation. Moving from one subject to another was refreshing. Bishop offers something new in each poem unlike other poets who only talk about the sea or their family. By delving into many issues like a filling station and armadillos, I felt that Bishop's themes were never diminished from repetition.

I felt that there was an underlying reason as to why Bishop's themes were so dynamic. This is because she is an observer. She observes the nuances of her environment. For example, in Filling Station, she notices a minute "extraneous plant" in the huge filling station. It is interesting to observe her observant nature as she makes a remark about the small details of life. More importantly, Bishop has a very inquisitive nature and when combined with her observant nature, she has the ability to question her observations and relate these questions to human nature. She questions travelling, "should we have stayed at home, wherever that may be?" or perhaps that "somebody loves us all." I found all this incredibly intriguing. Bishop's ability to forensically examine her surroundings is fascinating. How someone can analyse particular superficial things is quite compelling. Having mentioned her questioning nature, her actual questions are worth experiencing.

Her work is very thought provoking. It really makes me think about life. I enjoyed it all and particularly In the Waiting Room, a question of identity, "you are an I." She poses many other questions about life like humans' need to travel and humans' need to fish for sport. I found it all intellectually provocative and this makes her an interesting poet. I find that the topic of human behaviour is a remarkable issue that she addresses incredibly well. What she does to make these questions effectively provoke is that her work is non-didatic. In her poetry, she never imposes her beliefs onto others. She merely poses the question and lets the reader decide. In Questions of Travels, she asks plenty of questions, "where should we be today?" Not once does she answer her questions. I felt that her poetry was an excellent read because of this. Instead of listening to complaints, I can appreciate Bishop's poetry and her thought provoking issues. I am challenged by her quetions and this makes her poetry interactive.

Her most interactive aspect though is her excellent use of imagery. Bishop may not have a common theme but she does have a trademark use of imagery. The most interactive part of her imagery is the use of tactile imagery. In the Filling Station, the area is extremely dirty with an "oil soaked monkey suit." The best example of tactile imagery is in The Fish where the fish has "brown skin hung in strips" and "coarse white flesh packed in like feathers." The effect is that her poetry becomes very three-dimensional and it adds a new level to her poetry. I was deeply immersed in the poetry as I experienced the imagery.

She also employs the use of colour heavily. The colour helps add to the tone by evoking emotions. "The brown enormous odor" at the start of The Prodigal instantly sets a sick disgusting tone while the colour "white" helps emphasise the dead corpse in First Death of Nova Scotia. Colour, although a simple technique, is used effectively in every instance and I found it intriguing how powerful this method is. She perfectly develops the tone through this. Similarly, light is also used. The Armadillo is the best exhibition where "the paper chambers flush and fill with light" to add to the sense of unease that is about to happen when finally the armadillo lights on fire with "ignited eyes." Her visual images are very engaging and I thought the uses of light are very defining images.

In conclusion, I enjoyed Elizabeth Bishop's work. She is a very refreshing read who varies her subject matter. Her observant nature is intriguing and she raises questions of human behaviour through these observations. Her imagery is very enjoyable and she uses numerous techniques to entertain the reader.
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It is a hallmark of Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry that she writes of past pain without pathos and with precision. Her poems present accounts of events bordering on the surreal, and deal with the emotions that these memories engender. The poems I have found most emotive are First Death In Nova Scotia, In The Waiting Room, Sestina and Questions of Travel. In these poems I will be discussing her search for identity, childhood memories, the level of precision in her poetry and her comparison of the exterior world to a consideration of self.

Elizabeth was born in Massachusetts in 1911, the only child of William and May Bishop. Her father died when she was eight months old, from this loss her mother never recovered, leading to her eventual mental breakdown. From age six, Elizabeth was shifted from grandparents to aunts, and never felt a sense of having a home. From this, it is easy to understand that out of this came the strong theme of search for identity in her poetry. This theme is most evident in ‘In The Waiting Room’, and ‘Questions Of Travel’. In ‘In The Waiting Room’, I love the moment when she discovers, with sharp perceptiveness, that there is only one Elizabeth bishop, separate, unique but that unique individual self is also one of womankind on the wider scale. The line ‘why should you be one, too?’ is very effective in portraying the intentions of the child- she wants to hand on, to stay on earth, and not to tumble into space of unknown territory. I can relate to bishop here, for we have all faced situations where we do not wish to leave the comforts of what we know.

Likewise, in ‘Questions of Travel’, Bishop again addresses travel into new terrains, individuality and her search for identity, a continuity that appeals to me greatly. The poet offers us a profound reminder of the role that a place plays in forming our identity. The act of travelling beyond the confines of our surroundings not only challenges our understanding of who we are but also questions the very notion of home. The speaker in the poem poses the question of why human beings have a childish need to ‘rush’ to the other side of the world in order to see a ‘hummingbird’ or some ‘old stonework’. This question impacted on me as I feel that it is a lack of this childish wonder and awe in adults today that has led to mass materialism throughout the world, something that has affected both myself and the majority of my peers.

In typical bishop fashion, both of these poems move from considering the exterior world to a deeper consideration of self. In ‘In the Waiting Room’, Bishop begins by examining her surroundings, including a national geographic magazine. She then moves to a deeper consideration of self, proclaiming ‘But I felt: you are an I, you are an Elizabeth’. I think this complex feature is highly emotive and engaging, highlighting her distinct sense of individuality, a feature which can also be seen in ‘Questions of travel’. The poem is structured in a series of rich observations that give rise to more questions than answers, moving increasingly inwards so that the examination of the external world becomes a quest for self identity. The lyric implies that without continual risk and insecurity, there can be no spiritual growth.

Insecurity is something that, in her childhood, bishop was accustomed to. She describes painful childhood memories in her poetry, a theme which invited me to become both emotive and moved. In ‘First Death In Nova Scotia’, from a child’s perspective bishop expresses her first encounter with death, and in attempting to understand the reality makes confused, extraordinary and sometimes almost fairytale connections. Bishop links death with adults in this poem, an aspect of the poem that I find atypical. She devotes a stanza to talking about a stuffed ‘loon’ which her uncle has shot, and her mother lifts her to look into the coffin. This is one of the only mentions we have of her mother, and I think it is striking that she is very much entwined with the death of ‘little Arthur’ As a child, bishop was certainly unusual to have such an intuitive mind and a gentle, sensitive soul.

We can also see the sensitive child bishop in ‘In the Waiting Room’. To a lesser extent, we see bishop as a child trying to deal with fundamental questions such as ‘why should I be my aunt, or me, or anyone?’ the child Bishop, in response to this, faints. When she recovers consciousness, she realises she has not be submerged by ‘the black wave’. Earlier in the poem I understood bishop to be saying that as a child she has no option but to grow up to become the kind of woman she did not want to be. She is in the waiting room, metaphorically waiting too to take her place as a conscious member of the human race. I call this a painful memory because I feel that when recalling such an experience, it would be inhuman to not experience pain.

In sestina, it is evident that the memories are clearly very painful. The entire poem is steeped in an atmosphere of loss and sadness. Bishop defines this grief thought a series of precise and evocative adjectives: ‘failing’, ‘small’, ‘hard’, ‘ridged’, ‘inscrutable’. There is a poignant inevitability to the sadness that pervades the poem. Throughout the poem, the speaker chooses not to connect directly with the emotions and these memories engender. The final line of the envoi perfectly captures the sad truth that for bishop, the idea of a home is an ‘inscrutable’ or enigmatic one. The pain of recalling this childhood memory is clear in this poem.

In reading the poetry of Elizabeth bishop, it is impossible not to notice the level of precision in her work, an attractive feature that nearly demands your attention. Critic Randall Jarrell has written about bishop that “all her poems have written underneath, 'I have seen it'”. When he wrote this, Jarrell was referring to Bishop's talent for vivid description.Imagery and descriptive detail are conveyed in her poetry through a series of beautifully evoked word pictures. This is most noted in ‘first death in nova Scotia’, when the deceased Arthur is described as ‘like a doll that hadn’t been painted yet’. In ‘questions of travel’ we are given a breathtaking description of the landscape. In a series of lines that are filled with energy and movement, we learn that ‘there are many waterfalls here’. In her poetry, bishop gives us detailed descriptions of the exotic and the familiar. Sestina is a perfect example of bishop’s mastery of precise diction and detail.

Bishops poetry is highly stylised, an aspect that appeals to me greatly. Her poetry is rich is metaphors, similes, imagery and motifs. Sestina, possibly bishop’s most stylised poem, is written in the form of a sestina. It is a fixed form which relies for its structure on a strict pattern of repeated end words. I really like this form because I feel that due to its end words being repeated for thirty six lines, the sestina is well suited for subjects that require intense observation or meditation. I personally find this feature of her style captivating and interesting.

Bishop also makes use of metaphors and similes in her work. In ‘sestina’, metaphors such as ‘tears dancing like mad’ highlight the deep tragedy of her childhood. The questions of travel, bishops use of the act of travel as a metaphor symbolises her search for identity. In ‘first death in nova Scotia’ bishop uses the metaphor of the coffin as a ‘little frosted cake’ to describe her view of the coffin. She also uses the simile ‘like a doll’ to describe Arthurs pallor. There is no sense of fear or indeed any emotion beyond curiosity in this description. In ‘sestina’ , a powerful motif of tears is highlighted throughout the poem – ‘hide her tears’, ‘equinoctial tears’, ‘small hard tears’, ‘buttons like tears’ and ‘fall down like tears’. This adds to the prevailing atmosphere of sadness and loss. Bishops use of enjambment in order to move the poem gently forward is another style feature that I think works well in her poetry.

Bishop also employs the use of colour heavily. The colour helps add to the tone by evoking emotions. "The brown enormous odour" at the start of The Prodigal instantly sets a sick disgusting tone while the colour "white" helps emphasise the dead corpse in First Death of Nova Scotia. Colour, although a simple technique, is used effectively in every instance and I found it intriguing how powerful this method is.

Bishop has said ‘All my life I have lived and behaved very much like the sandpiper - just running down the edges of different countries and continents, 'looking for something'. For me, this sums up bishop, her poetry and her ideas perfectly. it highlights her theme of the search for identity, moves from an exploration of the exterior to a consideration of self, and like the jagged edge of countries, her childhood too was rough, to be soothed only by words. In this, I feel that bishop recognises and understands the power of words, and through her deeply emotive poetry, they have had a deep and profound impact on me.
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