Poetry - Elizabeth Bishop - Feature Of Poetry Flashcards
In which of her poems does she come to a realization
The fish - “like medals with their ribbons” - almost like a hero
Questions of travel - “Yes, a pity not to have pondered, blurr’dly and inconclusively” - answers the question she asked in stanza 2
Filling station - “Somebody embroidered the doily. Somebody waters the plant, or oils it, maybe. Somebody arranges the rows of cans so that they softly say: ESSO-SO-SO-SO…Somebody loves us all.” - realizing somebody is doing their best to keep the place looking nice (mother figure)
Which of her poems deals with a theme of childhood
Sestina
First death in Nova Scotia
Which of her poems deal with observing something from a distance (outside)
Filling station - “father wears a dirty, oil-soaked monkey suit…and several quick and saucy and greasy sons assist him”
Which of her poems deal with a theme of death or loss
Sestina - “puts in a man with buttons like tears” - she’s aware of the sadness but doesn’t quite understand it
First death in Nova Scotia - “in the cold, cold parlor my mother laid out Arthur” - wake after the death of her cousin Arthur (frank)
Describe the structure of her poems
Sestina - six stanzas (sestet), 6 lines long, 6 words repeated, word that ends the last line of a stanza is at the end of the first line in the next
The prodigal - 2 sonnets, first is Shakespearean (14 lines, 3 quatrains, rhyming couplet), second is Petrarchan (octet, quatrain, couplet)
First death in Nova Scotia - 5 stanzas, ten lines each
The fish - beginning, middle and end (narrative writing)
Questions of travel - four irregular stanzas, 2nd and 3rd are longer, last two are italicized that rhyme
Filling station - beginning, middle and end (narrative writing)
Which of her poems uses pathetic fallacy
Sestina - “September rain falls on the house”
First death in Nova Scotia - “in the cold, cold parlor my mother laid out Arthur”
Which of her poems deals with the theme of family
Sestina - “in the failing light, the old grandmother sits in the kitchen with the child” - refers to bishop and her maternal grandmother in the aftermath of her mother leaving
First death in Nova Scotia - “my mother”, “Arthur”, “uncle Arthur” - use of relatives names
Filling station - “father wears a dirty, oil-soaked, monkey suit…and several quick and saucy and greasy sons assist him”, “somebody loves us all” - observing a family, no maternal figure present, last line refers to the poet as well, she is ready to accept that her mother still loved her
Which of her poems deals with confusion
Sestina - “then the child puts in a man with buttons like tears and shows it proudly to the grandmother. “, “ … and the child draws another inscrutable house.” - suggests she’s aware of the sadness but not aware of the extent of it
First death in Nova Scotia - “Arthur was very small. He was all white, like a doll that hadn’t been painted yet.” - the word yet suggests that she doesn’t understand the finality of Arthur’s death
Questions of travel - “Should we have stayed at home and thought of here”, “ no. Should we have stayed at home, wherever that may be?” - suggests she confused why people travel, also unsure about where home for her is
Filling station - “why the extraneous plant? Why the taboret? Why, oh why, the doily?” - confused about why there seems to be effort put in to making a dirty filling station a home
Which of her poems include questions
Filling station - “why the extraneous plant? Why the taboret? Why, oh why, the doily?” - confused as to why the house is trying to look like a home
Questions of travel - “should we have stayed at home?”, “is it right to be watching strangers in a play in the strangest of theatres?” - confused as to why people travel
First death in Nova Scotia - “but how could Arthur go and the roads deep in snow?” - shows her confusion because she imagined a nice fairytale ending but she knows that it’s probably not going to happen
Which of her poems deals with personal topics
Sestina - loss of her mother
First death in Nova Scotia - loss her cousin
The prodigal - her battle with alcoholism
Filling station - absence of her mother
The fish - personal experience of when she caught a fish
Questions of travel - her opinion on travel, her own feeling about the presence of home
Which of her poems include descriptive language
Filling station - “father wears a dirty, oil-soaked monkey suit…and several quick and saucy and greasy sons assist him”
First death in Nova Scotia - “Arthur was very small. He was all white, like a doll that hadn’t been painted yet.”
Sestina - “little moons fall down like stars”
The prodigal - “the brown enormous odor he lived by was too close for him to judge”
The fish - “his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper.”
Which of her poems uses colours to get the point across
First death in Nova Scotia - “he kept his own counsel on his white, frozen lake”, “he was all white, like a doll that hadn’t been painted yet”, “jack frost had dropped the brush and left him white forever” (white symbolizes purity and innocence) + “his eyes were red glass much to be desired”, “the red-eyed loon eyed it again”, “a few red strokes”, “the gracious royal couples were warm in red and ermine” (red symbolized death (blood) and anger)
The prodigal - “the brown enormous odor he lived by was too close for him to judge”, “but evenings”, “at dark”, “bats” (dark colours = pessimism) + “glazed the barnyard mud with red”, “the lantern”, “the sunrise glazed the barnyard mud”, aureole” (light colours = hope)
Which of her poems uses contrasts (simile, metaphor)
The fish -
First death in Nova Scotia
Filling station
The prodigal
Which of her poems show that e.b. struggles with a sense of home
Sestina Questions of travel Filling station The prodigal First death in Nova Scotia
What poems begin with a statement
The fish - “I caught a tremendous fish”
Questions of travel - “there are too many waterfalls here”
Filling station - “Oh, but it is dirty!”
Which of her poems deal with simplistic language
The fish - “he didn’t fight.”, “he hadn’t fought at all”
Questions of travel - “the crowded streams hurry too rapidly down to the sea”
Sestina - “then the child puts in a man with buttons like tears”, “little moons fall down like tears”
First death in Nova Scotia - “in the cold, cold parlor my mother laid out Arthur”
Filling station - “oh, but it is dirty! - this little filling station”
In which of her poems does she use similes
Sestina - “but the child is watching the teakettle’s small hard tears dance like mad on the hot black stove”, “bird-like the almanac hovers half open above the child”, “puts in a man with buttons like tears”
Questions of travel - “and never to have had to listen to rain so much like politicians’ speeches” - comparing the torrential rain to politicians speeches
The prodigal - “safe and companionable as in the ark” - comparing the animals to those in Noah’s ark, because they are in sets of two, emphasises that the prodigal is alone
The fish - “I thought of the coarse white flesh packed in like feathers” - comparing the inside of the fish to feathers
What poetic techniques does she use
Alliteration Sibilance Repetition Assonance Metaphors Simile Rhyme Onomatopoeia Pathetic fallacy Personification
Which poems use alliteration
Filling station - “they lie upon a big dim doily draping a taboret”
The prodigal - “with pitchforks, faint forked lightenings”
The fish - “held him beside the boat”
Which poems use sibilance
The fish - “his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper”
Filling station - “father wears a dirty, oil-soaked monkey suit…and several quick and saucy and greasy sons assist him”
What poems uses assonance
L
Which poems uses personification
K
Which poems uses metaphors
First death in Nova Scotia - “Arthur’s coffin was a little frosted cake”
