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Elizabeth BishopExpert Group: The FishTheme: Moments of Awareness / The Natural WorldThe poet catches an enormous fish and the poet is surprised that it put up no resistance when it was caught. ‘He didn’t fight./ He hadn’t fought at all.’Despite the barrier between animal and human, Bishop begins to empathise with the fish: ‘I looked into his eyes’. She describes the eyes with great care, noting that the fish’s eyes are ‘far larger’ than the poet’s but they are ‘shallower, and yellowed.’ Though the creature does not respond to her, she admires ‘his sullen face/ the mechanism of his jaw’.She suddenly notices there are ‘five big hooks’ lodged firmly in the fish’s lip. She describes the hooks as ‘weaponlike’ and realises that the fish has struggled many times to escape capture.The achievement of the fish in escaping capture becomes like that of a war hero who has endured hardship and is now being honoured. We can picture a battle-scarred general, decorated for bravery, the fish-lines are ‘like medals with their ribbons/frayed and wavering’.For a brief moment, the world around the poet seems beautiful and joyous, full of wonderful colours: ‘everything/was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!’ Inspired by the fish’s survival, the poet decides to ‘let the fish go.’Bishop’s observations often lead her to discover things in the natural world that correspond with her own feelings and life. Though the poet acknowledges how strange and different this creature is to herself, when she realises the fish is a survivor, she suddenly feels a bond with it. She can identify with him as she, too, has struggled and survived. Poetic Techniques/LanguageTone:At the start of the poem the poet expresses her excitement and pride at catching a “tremendous fish” but the fact that the fish did not struggles leaves her feeling somewhat disappointed. The initial tone of pleasure gives way to a matter-of-fact tone as she studies the fish closely. The tone then changes again as she realises how the fish has struggled and survived. The poem closes with the poet feeling inspired by the fish and the tone is one of extreme joy. Metaphor:She uses a number of metaphors to describe the fish’s appearance. The irises are “tarnished tinfoil” and the lenses are “old scratched isinglass”.The lines that hang from the fish’s jaw are a “five-haired beard of wisdom”.Simile:Bishop compares the fish’s skin to peeling wallpaper.The fish’s flesh is “packed in like feathers”.Its swim-bladder is pink “like a peony”.The lines attached to the fish’s jaw are “like medals with their ribbons / frayed and weaponlike”.Key PointsKey themes include moments of awareness, as well as connecting with the natural world. This poem is marked by its extraordinary attention to detail. Simile and metaphor are used to bring the fish to life.It is an optimistic poem celebrating survivors. Elizabeth BishopExpert Group: The ProdigalTheme: Addiction and Homelessness‘The Prodigal’ is a moving and honest portrayal of an addict. He suffers from severe alcohol addiction and his problem has brought him to a terrible situation.He spends his days and nights amid the filth and squalor of the pigsty and it seems his nights are racked by guilt and self-loathing.The poem paints a picture of the misery addiction brings but also highlights how addicts take comfort in their way of living. They may be miserable but their way of life is one they are familiar with and understand.The poem emphasises how hard it is for an addict to leave addiction behind, even when he realises the full horror of his situation. In the evenings there are moments of “shuddering insight” when he realises the full horror of his situation. It is important to note that there is a strong autobiographical element to this poem as by 1939 Bishop was a full-blown alcoholic.An important part of the poem is the prodigal’s refusal to return home. He lives and works in misery and we get a sense that he feels he doesn’t really have a home as he is no longer welcome there. The word ‘home’ is the only end-word that doesn’t rhyme suggesting how difficult the idea of home is to the prodigal. His awareness of the bats flying through the sky reminds him that he can follow his instincts and return home, leaving his addiction and the pigsty behind but it still takes him a long time to go home. Again, this is very similar to Bishop’s circumstances as someone for whom ‘home’ did not really exist. Having lost her parents at a young age and spent years moving from house to house, in Bishop’s eyes the journey home is not an easy one to make.Poetic Techniques/LanguageImagery:Interestingly, Bishop describes the pigsty’s smell in visual terms, declaring that the odour is “brown” and “enormous”. She also appeals to our sense of hearing and of touch when depicting this stink, referring to the odour’s “breathing” and its “thick hair”.Light plays an important role in this poem. In the first stanza, the blazing sunrise fills the prodigal with reassurance that he can continue his miserable existence. Stanza 2, however, depicts the light fading out. Both the sun and the glow of the farmer’s lantern are “going away”. Darkness is settling in, making a sharp contrast to the beauty of the sunrise in Stanza 1. Whereas sunrise filled the prodigal with reassurance, the approaching darkness offers him only a grim “warning”. Metaphor:The hay packed above the animals in the barn is compared to “clouds” and we can imagine it as peaceful, cloudy puffs of hay. The sunrise is compared to a “glaze” that is spread over the mud of the farmyard. The red glow of its reflection on the puddles is compared to fire: “the burning puddles”.Sound Effects:Line 1 is rich with assonance due to its repeated broad-vowel sounds: “the brown enormous odor”. Here the repeated ‘o’ sounds slow the movement of the line suggesting the claustrophobic odour of the pigsty. Bishop uses assonance in order to emphasise the beauty of the sunrise. We see this in line 11, with its repeated ‘a’ sound (“glazed the barnyard”) and in line 12 with its repeated ‘u’ sound: “burning puddles”. This assonance creates a pleasant musical effect, reflecting the morning’s beauty and the reassurance it brings. Key PointsKey themes include the harsh realities of addiction and homelessness. This poem gives an honest and detailed portrayal of addiction. Like many of Bishop’s poems it reveals a moment of insight/awareness.Bishop pays extraordinary attention to detail and seeks to describe the world of the prodigal as clearly as possible.The poet also makes effective use of metaphor and sound effects. Elizabeth BishopExpert Group: Filling StationTheme: Moments of Awareness / Motherly LoveMany of Bishop’s poems are marked by moments of awareness or epiphany, moments when a person suddenly realises something profound and important about themselves of about the world.In this poem the poet is initially taken aback at the state of the place and the condition of the men working there. Everything is “greasy” and soaked with oil. But in the midst of this filthy masculine environment, certain unusual features stand out. The taboret, the plant and the doily are all such delicate decorative touches they seem strange in this rough and dirty place.The poet realises that someone is making an effort to beautify the filling station. Someone actually cares about how this filthy place looks. The men who work there are concerned with the work but there is obviously someone concerned about them and appearances. This sudden awareness that there is a figure behind the scenes, demonstrating her love can be interpreted in different ways. It seems to suggest that a mother’s presence is always felt, even if she is not actually there.The father and the ‘greasy’ sons have had at least some experience of feminine care and affection. It doesn’t matter that they are dirty and unattractive because somebody has loved them.This reading of the poem highlights Bishop’s optimistic view of life, despite her personal problems, especially the lack of a mother in her life.Some readers feel that the light-hearted tone of the poem is tinged with regret. After all, the station has been allowed to become so dirty. The mother is nowhere to be seen. Has she gone away or simply given up the battle against the oil and grease? This may be an expression of grief for Bishop’s deprived childhood.Either way, it is only through her curiosity and close observation that Bishop has her moment of epiphany that “Somebody loves us all”.Poetic Techniques/LanguageTone:The tone of the poem is mainly light-hearted and warmly inquisitive. Although the speaker initially seems shocked at the appearance of this filthy place, her humour and curiosity ultimately dominate. She wittily asks whether the plants have been oiled and her curiosity is evident in the questions she cannot help but ask. “Do they live in the station?”, “Why the extraneous plant? / Why the taboret?” Bishop seems to be presenting us with a humorous version of herself, someone who cannot help but wonder about the smallest of details. Sound Effects:Bishop makes use of sibilance (repetition of ‘s’ sounds) in the poem – in words such as ‘soaked’, ‘translucency’, ‘saucy’, ‘greasy’ and so on.This has an onomatopoeic effect as it suits the impression of oiliness and grease that she wants to give. The use of alliteration in the words ‘family filling’ and ‘dim doily’ contribute to the harmony of the poem.Key PointsKey themes include moments of awareness as well motherly love. This poem makes use of sound effects.There are a number of interpretations to Bishop’s statement “Somebody loves us all” The poet showcases her curious and observant nature in this poem. Elizabeth BishopExpert Group: SestinaTheme: Childhood / Growing Awareness‘Sestina’ wonderfully depicts the mentality of childhood. Childhood mentality is artfully portrayed in the depiction of the granddaughter drawing a house with her crayons. She draws in the typically “rigid”, over-deliberate fashion of children. She approaches the task with an innocent and childish dedication, “carefully” sketching a flower bed and showing the picture “proudly” to her grandmother.Bishop skilfully inhabits a child’s point of view. The phrase “clever almanac” has a childish ring to it. The poem’s second half is full of strange and bizarre occurrences, however, we get the impression that these weird events are not “real” but merely taking place in the granddaughter’s imagination.She imagines the almanac hovering around the kitchen with a mind of its own and sends a rain of moons into her picture and that her grandmother’s cup contains tears rather than tea. Many of Bishop’s poems are marked by moments of awareness or epiphany, moments when a person suddenly or gradually realises something profound and important about themselves or about the world.The tragedy that has struck the family is “known only to a grandmother”. Yet we get the impression that awareness of this tragedy is slowly dawning on the child. She thinks of “tears” running down the kettle and fill the grandmother’s cup. The drops from the kettle seems to dance “like mad”, perhaps suggesting her mother’s mental breakdown. Furthermore, she imagines the stove and the almanac having a conversation about the tragic events. We get an impression that the child attempts to shield herself from sorrow by drawing houses. It’s as if she tries to create in her imagination, an ideal house, an alternative world where the tragedy that struck her never happened. The house she draws is described as “rigid”, suggesting it is a tough and solid safe haven. The man in the drawing most likely represents the father she so tragically lost. Yet the fact that his buttons are like “tears” suggests that even in the idealised world of drawing, the child cannot escape the dawning awareness of sorrow.The child is protected from sorrow by her inability to understand. But this defence will only last for so long. The almanac seems to represent awareness of the tragedy waiting to descend upon the child. It hovers above her in an ominous fashion and “plants tears” in the child’s drawing. We get the impression that tears have also been planted in the child’s life and will soon bear fruit in the form of the terrible sorrow which could overcome her. Poetic Techniques/LanguageForm / Structure:The sestina is a notoriously difficult poetic form, one that very few writers have employed successfully. In this poem, however, Bishop displays absolute command of the form, perhaps using its intense difficulty and rigid structure to contain the difficult childhood emotions she is exploring. This sestina’s six end-words are: ‘house’, ‘grandmother’, ‘child’, ‘stove’, ‘almanac’ and ‘tears’, highlighting the key themes of the poem.Tone and Atmosphere:This poem conjures a melancholy autumnal atmosphere. It is September – summer is over and winter is on its way. The poem is set at evening time when the light is failing and the darkness and cold gather: “She shivers and says she thinks the house feels chilly”.An important part of the poem is its increasingly menacing descriptions of the rain. In the first line we are told the rain is simply “falling” on the house. By line 7, however, the rain “beats” on the house, which suggests violence. In lines 15 and 16 the child reckons the rain must be dancing “like mad” on the roof of the houseSimile and Metaphor:In a fine metaphor, the drops of moisture on the kettle’s side are compared to tears.In a memorable simile, the buttons on the man in the child’s drawing are compared to tears. In another simile, the moons falling from the almanac’s pages are compared to tears and we can imagine how the full, half and quarter moons depicted on the almanac’s pages might resemble tears.In another fine simile, the almanac is compared to a bird: “Birdlike, the almanac / hovers half open above the child”. We can imagine the almanac’s half-open pages resembling wings as it hovers about the kitchen.Key PointsFocuses a moment from the speaker’s childhood where she experienced a growing awareness. This is a personal poem which makes use of metaphor and simile.Elizabeth BishopExpert Group: First Death in Nova ScotiaTheme: Moments of Growing AwarenessLike most of Bishop’s poems, ‘First Death …’ is marked by moments of awareness. The narrator, a young girl, seems unaware of the reality of death. This is clear when she mentions the silence of the stuffed loon, she believes he has “kept his own counsel” since her uncle shot him: “Since Uncle Arthur fired / a bullet into him, / he hasn’t said a word”. The fact that this surprises her indicates her lack of comprehension of the reality of death. As the poem’s title suggests, the passing of her cousin Arthur will be a powerful moment of awareness for the young speaker. It will be first real confrontation with death, her first understanding of what dying actually means.Throughout the poem, however, she tries to evade thoughts of bereavement. In stanza 2 she deliberately focuses on the stuffed loon instead of on her cousin. Even when she is lifted up to give Arthur a flower, she tries to avoid contemplating his strange new state, preferring to focus on the loon and the coffin in which he lies: “Arthur’s coffin was / a little frosted cake / and the red-eyed loon eyed it / from his white frozen lake”. Bishop wonderfully captures the childhood mentality of her young speaker. She attempts to avoid dealing with the true horror of death by thinking of it in innocent and homely terms: his coffin “a little frosted cake”, and his body is compared to a doll. She also uses fantasy to avoid thinking about death, telling herself that Arthur is only white because Jack Frost forgot to paint him. Similarly, she tells herself that Arthur won’t be around any longer, not because he is dead but because he is heading off to the court of King George where he will work as the “smallest page”.However, though the speaker attempts to focus on the loon, her cousin keeps coming to her mind. She describes the loon in terms more appropriate to her cousin’s body, telling us how he “kept his own counsel”, and how he was “deep and white”. She even uses the pronouns ‘he’ and ‘his’ instead of ‘it’ and ‘its’.It is also worth noting that the word “forever” is emphasised because despite the speaker’s attempts to avoid thinking about death, she is becoming aware, on some level, that an eternal and unalterable change has taken place. The poem concludes with the speaker on the verge of awareness. We get the impression that the fantastic stories she tells herself, about Jack Frost and King George, aren’t capable of shielding her from the truth. She seems to know deep down that the story about Arthur going off to be a page simply can’t be true. Despite all her attempts to avoid this grim epiphany, she is about to understand what death is and what it means for a person to die; a realisation that is terrible, strange and unchangeable. Poetic Techniques/LanguageTone and Atmosphere:The poem has a chilly, icy atmosphere, suitable to a poem that deals with the themes of death. In the first lines, we’re told the parlour is “cold, cold” – the repetition emphasising the room’s frostiness.The loon’s breast is described as being “cold”. The marble-topped table is compared to a “frozen lake”. The coffin is compared to a “frosted cake”. There is a reference to ‘Jack Frost’, a fairy-tale character associated with frost and coldness. The roads in the surrounding countryside are described as being “deep in snow”The poem’s final image is a particularly wintry one, as the speaker imagines little Arthur, vulnerable and alone, wandering through the icy terrain. Bishop’s relentless references to whiteness also contributes to the icy atmosphere. The loon’s breast is white, as is the table and Arthur’s coffin. Furthermore the flower paced in his hands is a white lily. Perhaps the most notable occurrence is that of Arthur’s pale corpse, which is now “white forever”. Imagery:One notable feature of this poem is the almost fairy-tale imagery Bishop deploys. We see this with the mention of Jack Frost and with the description of Arthur being called to serve as pageboy for King George.The image of the boy walking with his eyes shut tight through snowdrifts toward a king’s court is like something from one of the darker tales of Hans Christian Andersen. These fairytale images are not only innocent and childlike but are also haunting and even menacing. Metaphor and Simile:Bishop uses a fine metaphor to describe the table on which the loon rests, comparing it to a frozen lake: “He kept his own counsel / on his white frozen lake, / the marble-topped table”. In another metaphor, Arthur’s coffin is compared to a “little frosted cake”. In a revealing simile, Arthur’s corpse is compared to a doll: “He was all white, like a doll”Key PointsThe poem deals with a powerful childhood memory – her first experience with the reality of death. The poet uses memorable imagery.She paints a clear picture of a child’s growing awareness / maturity. ................
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