Elizabeth Bishop Essay

Elizabeth Bishop is a very highly skilled poet. She deals with several different but equall(a)y interesting subject matters. I am personally drawn to many elements of her work, for example her pennings and call of writing. Bishop deals with many different themes, including family, death, beauty and survival. She as well uses a very unique and intriguing style of writing. Bishop has a remarkable eye for flesh out, her poems reach a conclusion and she puts a huge amount of her own life into her work.Firstly I go out note at the themes of her poetry. Family, baby birdhood and home are recurring themes through and through with(predicate)out her poetry. Bishop had quite an unfortunate tiddlerhood and confounded both her parents at quite a materialisation age. This is reflected in the unnerving images she often employs in accounts of her childhood.This theme is central to many of her poems. Sestina, for example, is dominated by mages of rain, failing light and tears. Also in Fir st wipeout in Nova Scotia she captures the confusion of a child faced with the inexplicable fact of her cousins death.The use of the third person voice in sestina blends the poets adult perspective with the childs. It also allows Bishop to distance herself emotionally. Quite noticeably at that place is no mother in sestina, which is reinforced by the repetition of grandmother. This insufficiency of parental figure in Bishops life is common in her poems, all but First Death in Nova Scotia.Come, said my motherBishop lost her mother at five years of age. Although her mother didnt die at this time it is notable that the barely poem in which she is mentioned is predominantly almost death.It seems Bishop never knew a true home and her search for a sense of belonging is apparent in Filling Station. At first she is disgusted by the dirty filling station. However as the poem progresses she discovers that it is a family filling station. She notices a warmer, more(prenominal) feminine to uch in the home. They lie upon a bouffant dim doily draping a taboret. Bishop tells us that somebody embroidered the doily. This somebody is the mother of the greasy sons.There are also many other domestic comparisons in her work, such as the reference to ancient wallpaper and tarnished tinfoil in The Fish.The Fish uses many different types of descriptions. Bishops use of both factual, objective vision and aesthetic, subjective imagery is an element of her work which really appealed to me.In contrast to factual description such as rags of green weed hung down there is quite a bit of romanticising such as five haired beard of wisdom. There is also a contrasting link between the fish and roses. in one case again Bishop takes something quite unpleasant and betrays it beautiful. Speckled with barnacles is hardly a pleasant image, much like the skin of the fish hanging off. However Bishops carefully chosen language shows beauty.Bishop also discoverys beauty in the most miserable of scenes. This is clear in The Prodigal. The prodigal lives in a pig sty, he leads a truly disgusting life. However Bishops top executive to find beauty in the most miserable of places shines through. The sunrise gazed the barnyard mud with red.Beauty is discovered through a series of observations in Filling Station. At first glance the filling station is a filthy and thoroughly unpleasant place to be. Oil-soaked, oil-permeated to a disturbing overall black translucency. However she continues to discover more and more about their home and the images become more pleasant. Embroidered with daisy stitch with marguerites.Another interesting theme throughout Bishops work is death. First Death in Nova Scotia deals with a childs first experience of death. The child is younger than five and doesnt understand death. This is showing where she speaks about the stuffed loon. Since Uncle Arthur fired a bullet into him he hadnt said a word. The child doesnt understand what has happened or what wil l happen to little cousin Arthur. She is unfamiliar with coffins and compares his to a little frosted cake because it is small and white. In the final lines of the poem the child becomes frustrated referable to her confusion. barely how could Arthur go and the roads deep in snow?Throughout The Fish the animals life is in the speakers hands. She holds him one-half out of water, while he breathes in the terrible oxygen, the fish is slowly dying in her hands and she must decide whether or not he is worth saving. Ultimately the speaker decides the fish is far too venerable to lose its life. And I let the fish go.The final theme I will look at is survival. This is shown best in The Fish and The Prodigal. The Fish shows that natures creatures are like humans in their ability to obtain and learn from that suffering. The tremendous creature has escaped death at the hands of previous fishermen 5 times. A five haired heard of wisdom trailing from his comprehend jaw. The word wisdom shows that he has become wise from his struggles.The Prodigal shows survival in a different sense. The alcoholic in this poem will outlive anything to maintain his addiction. Surviving in vile conditions to maintain his drinking. The Prodigal also made me question my own attitudes towards addiction, helping me to understand and sympathise with it.Many poems afford attention to the senses. This shows Bishops commitment to detail. This is very strong in The Prodigal. Sound, their little feet and snored smell, the embrown enormous odour touch he leaned to scratch her head and mickle plastered half way up with glass smooth dung.This attention to all our senses is also strong in The Prodigal. Sound, their little feet and snored smell The brown enormous odour touch he leaned to scratch her head and of course sight the sty was plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dungOur senses are also used in Sestina. Sound, rain that beats smell she cuts some bread touch she thinks the house feels chill y and finally sight With crayons the child draws a set house.Bishops concern with every day, ordinary objects also adds to her compelling dedication to detail. This is at the heart of The Fish, Filling Station and First Death in Nova Scotia. As such she allows us to see how wonderfully attractive the world bathroom be if we stop and pay attention to the details.In The Fish for example, Bishop describes a tremendous, fish that she caught. She compares the fishs skin to ancient wallpaper and speaks of the rosettes of lime that she sees. Even the aspects of the fish that she cannot see, his insides and entrails, she describes in intricate detail.Likewise this fascinating attention to detail is also apparent in Filling Station. Standing before an average filling station the poet becomes increasingly curious about the place. Why the extraneous kit and boodle? she wonders.In First Death in Nova Scotia, we discover Bishops commitment to detail was something she possessed even as a young child. Edward, Prince of Wales with Queen Mary.As she tells this poem from her childhood perspective the images are childlike and unusual, however they stay true to her particular technique.This ability of Bishops to see beyond the ordinary, to note and appreciate the wonder in the everyday objects around us is refreshing All of Bishops poetry reveals how time spent observing the world around us can lead to interesting conclusions and insights.Colour is also an appealing quality of her work. There is a lot of colour throughout The Fish, we never go more than a few lines without the next addition of colour. These colours get much more vibrant as the poem progresses, going from his brown skin to decay orange. The steady progression of colour ultimately leads to the exclamation rainbow, rainbow, rainbowIn The Prodigal she mentioned the brown enormous odour. Attaching a colour to the odour strengthens the unbearable stench and I think it creates one of Bishops strongest descriptions. Unlike The Fish, First Death in Nova Scotia, references the same colours repeatedly. Red and white are repeated and references continuously. The rimy lake which the loon sits on is mentioned twice along with frosted cake, white like a doll, and left him white forever. This colour may represent peace or innocence. The child also mentions the loons red eyes twice, as well as a few strokes of red and warm in red. This may represent pain or suffering.There is also reference to colour in Filling Station. The difference here is that Bishop focuses on the lack of definite colour. Greys and blacks make up the scene, Black translucency. The repetition of dirty reinforces this. The lack of colour makes the comics stand out, the scarcely note of certain colour.A common theme throughout all of Bishops work is her ability to reach a conclusion in order to end the poem. Her conclusions include And I let the fish go But it took him a long time finally to make his mind up to go home The child dr aws another inscrutable house and Somebody loves us all. Quite notable there isnt a pleasant ending to First Death in Nova Scotia which reinforces the lack of understanding in the child and her inability to give her cousin a happy ending.What I personally admire most about Bishops work is how much of herself she puts into her poetry.On a deeper level, Filling Station may be about Bishop herself. She missed and longed for a mother figure in her own life. Sadly she and her mother were separated when she was only 5 years old.Sestina deals with the period of time just after the separation. The mother is absent from the scene and she draws a man who we presume is her late father. Then the child puts in a man.The Prodigal represents her problems with alcoholism and was inspired by drinking in a barn. She, like the prodigal, suffered with addiction.First death in Nova Scotia is the only poem where Bishop mentions her mother, showing us she has some memory of her. It is significant that the only poem where she mentions her is one where death and the understanding of death is the central theme.The Fish shows the ability to struggle on and survive, despite all odds. The Fish was like Bishop because it had grown tired of fighting for its life.Bishops poetry displays her need throughout her life to find stability and order. Bishop never outgrew the loss of her mother and the terrible feeling of not belonging.Elizabeth Bishops work is fantastic and compelling, allowing the reader to see into her own life through varied themes and subject matters. Her style of writing is appealing and unusual and thismakes her an incredibly skilled poet. Bishop is honest in her portrayal of her upbringing which is undoubtable very appealing.