Ms Cotter's Class

For a comprehensive biography of Bishop, consult your poetry textbook. The most significant details you should familiarize yourself with are the loss of her father and subsequent institutionalization of her mother at a young age, her experiences with travel and eventual settlement in Brazil and her experiences with alcoholism.

Advice on answering poetry questions

A poetry question will always take the form of a statement for you to discuss. Generally, a question will ask you to discuss theme, or style or both.
The question won’t explicitly state this, but theme refers to subject matter (ie what does the poet write about) and style refers to how the poet writes (particular attention is to be paid to language, imagery and technique). It is important for you to remember that you must use quotation from the poetry in your answer, as well as having a good knowledge of the entirety of each poem. It is also important to share your own insights and opinions on the poetry.
To structure your response, it is a good idea to discuss theme by theme, or style feature by style feature. If you find this challenging, discussing poem by poem is also acceptable.

Themes: Nature, travel and culture,  family, human behaviour, observance

Style: Language that is incredibly precise, conversational poetry, observance rather than direct involvement or inclusion of personal information, sudden moments of insight or clarity following questions and musings, the use of similes, metaphors, assonance, alliteration, extremely evocative imagery that is often anti-aesthetic, celebrating the ordinary, finding beauty in the ordinary, almost a scientific approach to exploring universal themes/insights

The six poems that we have studied are: The Fish, Filling Station, The Prodigal, First Death in Nova Scotia, Questions of Travel and The Armadillo

The Fish

The Fish details a personal experience of Bishop’s, though in Bishop’s own inimitable style, focus is on the fish rather than on the speaker.
Bishop begins the poem by telling us that she caught ‘a tremendous fish’. The word tremendous suggests that the fish is almost overwhelmingly large. Bishop holds him outside the boat to admire him. She notes her hook is ‘fast in the corner of (his) mouth.’ Bishop is aware that she has won this battle, noting ‘he didn’t fight. He hadn’t fought at all.’ She uses assonance to express the weight of the fish, ‘he hung a grunting weight.’ She then refers to him as ‘battered and venerable and homely.’ This initial description of the fish is unattractive, but the word venerable implies Bishop’s growing respect for the fish. For much of the remainder of the poem, Bishop provides us with an incredibly detailed description of the fish. Bishop begins with an effective simile ‘his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper’. The image of the fish is particularly unattractive but once more, the word ‘ancient’ seems deferential. Although the unflinchingly honest description of the unattractive animal continues, Bishop imbues her anti-aesthetic descriptions of the fish with touches of beauty. She refers to his skin as having ‘shapes like full-blown roses.’ She describes the barnacles which speckle the fish as ‘fine rosettes of lime’. The fish is ‘infested with tiny white sea-lice.’ Bishop then begins to imagine the inside of the fish and she uses another effective simile to imagine its ‘coarse white flesh packed in like feathers.’ In perhaps the most bizarrely beautiful simile of the poem, she likens his ‘pink swim-bladder’ to a ‘big peony.’ Bishop then looks into the fish’s eyes, which she describes as ‘shallower, and yellowed’. His irises are ‘backed and packed with tarnished tinfoil’ and she likens his lenses to ‘old scratched isinglass.’ Despite looking into the fish’s eyes directly, there is no sudden and profound moment of empathy or mutual bonding. The fish’s eyes ‘shifted a little’ but they do not return her stare. It is the fish’s mouth that actually captures the poet’s sympathy. She describes his lip as ‘grim, wet, and weaponlike’ and notices that from it hung ‘five old pieces of fish-line.’ In typical Bishop fashion, she corrects herself here in order to provide her reader with precise detail, noting that the attachments are actually ‘ four (lines) and a wire leader.’ These fish lines convey the fish’s past struggles and are still ‘crimped from the strain and snap when it broke and he got away.’ The words ‘strain’ and ‘snap’ reinforce the fish’s suffering and endurance through his struggles. Bishop likens these fish lines to ‘medals with their ribbons’ and to ‘a five-haired beard of wisdom.’ Her admiration and compassion for the fish is becoming more explicit, as she refers to his ‘aching jaw.’ This compassion and relation to the fish’s suffering leads Bishop to a final conclusion and in a moment of wonderful clarity, everything becomes ‘rainbow, rainbow, rainbow’ as Bishop lets the fish go.

Themes: Suffering, nature, moments of insight
Style: Precise detail and observation, use of assonance, alliteration, simile, metaphor, and imagery that is oddly beautiful but also anti-aesthetic

The Prodigal

This poem links well with The Fish as both poems contain anti-aesthetic detail and they both chronicle a subject who has experienced hardship and suffering. The title is biblical in nature and the body of the poem contains biblical imagery.
The poem opens with a wonderful use of assonance to convey the disgusting conditions the prodigal has become accustomed to ‘the brown enormous odor he lived by was too close’. The long ‘o’ sounds add to the overwhelming nature of the smell. It is personified by Bishop, who describes it as ‘breathing’ and having ‘thick hair.’ The poet further reinforces the filth of the subject’s surroundings by stating ‘the floor was rotten.’ To further compound the unpleasant imagery, she states that the sty was ‘plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dung.’ The prodigal is watched by pigs, whom Bishop describes as ‘light-lashed’ and ‘self-righteous’. The pigs’ eyes follow him, and the man returns to them ‘a cheerful stare’. The pleasantness of this image is ruined, however, as Bishop states that he leaned to scratch (while ‘sickening’) the head of the sow ‘that always ate her young.’ The painful reality of the man’s life is now coming into focus, as she mentions his ‘drinking bouts’ and how he hides his alcohol dependency. The prodigal finds comfort in the sunlight, as it ‘glazed the barnyard mud with red.’ The wonderful assonance in this line adds to the beauty of the image and it allows the man to derive comfort from his surroundings, so much so that he thinks ‘he might endure his exile yet another year or more.’

The second sonnet contains an dramatic change of tone, signified by the word ‘but’. It is the nighttime that unsettles the man. He is left alone in the barn, and the farmer whom he works for seems to care little for his welfare, concentrating instead on his animals. They are left ‘beneath their overhanging clouds of hay’, a metaphor which conveys how the animals are cared for. The man searches for light, but only light visible to him is the ‘pitchforks…catching light’. The animals are ‘safe and companionable as in the ark.’ This biblical reference reminds us of the religious connotations of the poem. While the animals sleep comfortably, the man watches as the farmer carries his lantern away as it lays ‘on the mud a pacing aureole.’ The man is now left alone with his thoughts as he witnesses the ‘bats’ uncertain staggering flight’ around him (though Bishop used the word ‘felt’). This causes the man to experience a profound moment of clarity, which Bishop refers to as ‘shuddering insights’. The bats’ uncertainty and staggering reminds the man of himself, and although they appear aimless, they know how to find their way home. Ultimately, the man decides to return home and much like The Fish, the poem ends on a hopeful note.
Themes: addiction, suffering, redemption
Style: a double sonnet, anti-aesthetic detail, assonance, biblical language

The poems Filling Station and First Death in Nova Scotia are both rather straightforward so I will not write extensively on them here, but note the following:

Filling Station:

This poem ties in wonderfully with the remainder of Bishop’s poetry because she is carefully observing a place that one would not usually consider attractive or even interesting. Despite the dirty appearance of the place, Bishop spots pretty, feminine touches and notes that ‘somebody’ is responsible for them. The poem ends with a moment of comforting realization ‘somebody loves us all.’

Themes: A sense of home, observance, moments of insight
Style: Humour, assonance, alliteration, sibilance, precise attention to detail, questioning

First Death in Nova Scotia

The poem describes the young Bishop’s first encounter with death, specifically the tragic death of her young cousin, Arthur. The poem is all about connections made by the young Bishop between her deceased cousin and the objects which surround him. The royal family she observes in pictures are alive, and importantly, wrapped up and warm. This contrasts with the image we are given of a pale and cold Arthur. Bishop draws comparisons between a bird that has been shot and stuffed by Arthur’s father which keeps ‘his own counsel on his white, frozen lake’ and Arthur’s corpse. In typical Bishop fashion, the poem is full of precise observations. It ends with a provocative question, where the young Bishop begins to come to terms with the finality of death: ‘but how could Arthur go?’

Themes: Nature, death, moments of insight
Style: Evocative imagery (the colours red and white are prominent), powerful metaphors, a childlike perspective

Questions of Travel

This poem was written during Bishop’s travels to Brazil and once more, it contains her wonderful observations of the world around her as well as the titular questions which cause her to ponder on the nature of travel. The poem opens with a rather critical statement: ‘there are too many waterfalls here.’ Indeed, this criticism permeates the entire first stanza, as Bishop uses words like ‘crowded’, ‘rapidly’ and ‘pressure’ to convey how overwhelmed she feels by the gushing waterfalls and heavy cloud cover. There seems to be little difference between the rapid waterfalls and the ‘pressure of so many clouds on the mountaintops.’ In a wonderful metaphor, Bishop notes that if these ‘mile-long, shiny, tearstains aren’t waterfalls yet, in a quick age or so…they will be.’ Such is the presence of water, Bishop observes that the mountaintops are so covered that they ‘look like the hulls of capsized ships, slime-hung and barnacled.’ The criticism seems to continue into the second stanza. Bishop wonders if it would have been better to stay at home and imagine the destination rather than actually travel. She also asks the question ‘where should we be today?’ The word should suggests the pressure tourists often feel to visit the ‘right’ tourist sites. Next, she questions the morality of travel ‘is it right to be watching strangers in a play in this strangest of theatres?’ As tourists, are we gawking ignorantly at locals as if they are there for our amusement? Bishop continues to question the necessity of travel. She wonders why we ‘rush to see the sun the other way around’ or why we want to ‘stare at some inexplicable old stonework’ and refer to it, rather blandly, as ‘delightful.’ Bishop’s central question is posed next ‘oh, must we dream our dreams and have them, too?’ She wonders if we are perhaps making travel too consumerist, and she uses a wonderful metaphor to convey this in the final lines of this stanza. She refers to us trying to fit ‘one more folded sunset’ into our suitcases, perfectly capturing the commercial nature of traveling.

Bishop’s rather critical tone changes in the succeeding stanzas, however. She notes that ‘it would have been a pity’ not to have seen the beautiful trees which line the road, which she playfully compares to ‘noble pantomimists.’ Once more, Bishop chooses to find beauty and wonder in a rather mundane setting: a filling station. She notes the ‘sad, two-noted, wooden tune’ of the pump attendant’s ‘disparate wooden clogs.’ She uses brilliantly cacophonous onomatopoeia to describe the shoes ‘carelessly clacking’ on the floor. The footwear is crude, but Bishop appreciates its unique quality, as she notes ‘in another country the clogs…would have identical pitch’. She then notices ‘a fat brown bird’ in a cage which she wonderfully describes as ‘a bamboo church of Jesuit baroque.’ Bishop is fascinated by the contrast between the crude wooden footwear and the intricacy of the ‘careful and finicky’ wooden cage. She wonders what possible connection could exist between them. Bishop does not arrive at a conclusion, and cleverly uses the word ‘blurr’dly’ to convey her confusion. We are, however, reminded of Brazil’s colonial history by the mention of the Jesuits and she notes that one can study history in the ‘weak calligraphy of songbirds’ cages.’
The poem ends with Bishop referring to a traveler (thus giving the poem universal appeal) taking out a notebook and ruminating on our shared motivation for travel. She wonders if it is ‘lack of imagination’ that causes us to travel, or if the philosopher Pascal could have been wrong about the benefits of ‘sitting quietly in one’s room.’ Travel, Bishop concludes, is indeed restrictive. The last question is rather deep. Bishop asks ‘Should we have stayed at home, wherever that may be?’ This seems an odd question, considering that home for many people is a fixed place. One must remember that for Bishop, however, this was not the case and she did not have a permanent home for much of her childhood, or indeed her adult life.

Themes: Nature, travel, observation
Style: Precise observation, metaphors, alliteration, onomatopoeia, questions

The Armadillo

Bishop wrote this poem while living in Brazil and observing a local festival celebrating an unnamed saint. In her inimitable style, Bishop keenly observes her surroundings and provides us with vivid descriptions of what she sees. It is clear from reading her observations that she is critical of the local customs, which cause harm to the surrounding wildlife. In this sense, the poem can be seen as latently environmentalist. The poem has an ABCB rhyming scheme, except for the first stanza, which has an ABAB rhyming scheme.

The poem opens with Bishop describing a rural festival where the local inhabitants release ‘frail, illegal fire balloons’. The word ‘illegal’ is an early indication of Bishop’s condemnation of this custom. The aim of the balloons is to pay tribute to a ‘saint still honoured in these parts.’ There is something almost primitive about this practice, although Bishop’s early descriptions of the ‘paper chambers’ are rather appealing; she uses a simile to compare them to ‘hearts’ which climb the air and ‘flush and fill with light that comes and goes.’ Bishop then tells us that once the balloons have risen, it is hard to distinguish them from ‘the stars’. She then corrects herself and writes ‘planets, that is.’ We are informed that the balloons are ‘tinted’- like Venus, Mars and the ‘pale green’ planet (possibly Uranus).There is something ethereal and dreamlike about these images. If there is a gust of wind, the balloons ‘flare and falter.’ The alliterative ‘f’ sound here is a repetition of the second stanza; although now the alliteration denotes the unsteady flight of the balloons. If the night is still, the balloons ‘steer between the kite sticks of the Southern Cross’. Once more, we are presented with an image of the balloons’ light shining against the night sky as they continue ‘receding, dwindling’ and ‘solemnly forsaking’ the local inhabitants.

In the next lines, Bishop’s tone suddenly turns to one of warning. The balloons, if caught in the ‘downdraft’ suddenly turn ‘dangerous.’ The remainder of the poem describes the balloons’ devastating effect on the local wildlife. She describes how ‘last night another big one fell’ behind her house. She uses a wonderful simile to describe the impact of the balloon as it hit the cliff: ‘it splattered like an egg of fire.’ The balloon’s fire displaces a pair of owls who are nesting behind the poet’s home. They fly away, clearly frightened and ‘stained bright pink underneath’ by the flames. Bishop describes them ‘whirling’ as they ‘shrieked up out of sight.’ Bishop concludes that ‘the ancient owls’ nest must have burned.’ The word ‘ancient’ suggests that Bishop respects and pities the owls.

Next, Bishop describes the titular armadillo who is ‘alone’ and ‘glistening’. The Armadillo is ‘rose-flecked’, no doubt burned from the embers of the balloons. He is scurrying for safety with his head and tail bowed. The words ‘glistening’ and ‘rose-flecked’ might be attractive, however the image of the armadillo being scorched certainly isn’t.

Bishop’s following description is equally pitiful. A ‘baby rabbit’ appears. Its ears have been burned and it is ‘a handful of intangible ash.’ It is difficult to make sense of the rabbit’s coat, due to it being singed and burned by the fire. Bishop describes it as ‘so soft’ and it is evident to us that she feels great sympathy towards the young animal’s plight. The rabbit’s eyes are ‘fixed’ and ‘ignited’; it is terrified as the fire is reflected in its startled eyes. The rabbit appears frozen by fear.

The last stanza is markedly more emotionally charged than the preceding stanzas. The custom is described as ‘too pretty’. We are presented with an image of ‘falling fire’ and ‘piercing cry and panic.’ There is nothing pretty about these descriptions; they are explicitly unpleasant. The armadillo is once more referred to; this time he is ‘a weak mailed fist clenched ignorant against the sky.’ His armour does not fully protect him from the falling balloons. He is ‘ignorant’ because he does not understand what is happening to him, although he does appear to be angry. Bishop is reminding us that impulsive and thoughtless human behaviour can have consequences for vulnerable animals.

Themes: Nature, travel/culture, compulsion, suffering
Style: Observance, precise detail, empathy