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!”
