What I admire about the poesy of Elizabeth Bishop is her combination of precise. inventive description and thought arousing penetration. The poet closely observes and vividly describes the universe around her. Her celebrated oculus for item and original imagination gives her poesy a strong ocular quality. pulling the reader into the universe she describes. However. what makes her poesy particulary appealing to me is her desire to examine beneath the surface of things. We see how her close observation leads to inner contemplation and minutes of perceptual experience. These minutes of perceptual experience helps us as readers to acquire a better apprehension of the universe in which she lives in. Her poesy is rooted in personal experiences. but has a general cosmopolitan subject.
I enjoyed ‘The Fish’ for its unusual imagination. elaborate description and uplifting epiphany. We are drawn into the verse form by the gap lines ‘I caught a enormous fish’ The poets respect for the fish is instantly conveyed. he is ‘battered and venerable and homely’ . A domestic simile helps us to visualize this immense. ancient fish. while arousing a sense of comfy acquaintance ‘his brown tegument hung in strips. like ancient wallpaper’ Imaginative similes conjure up an image of the interior of the fish. his flesh is ‘packed in similar feathers’ . while his swim vesica is ‘like a large poeny’ . An interesting displacement in the verse form occurs when the poet looks into the fish’s eyes and begins to prosecute with him. Observation leads to contemplation. The poet empathises with the fish when she observes the five maulerss that had ‘grown steadfastly in his mouth’ . Like the poet. I admire the fish for lasting the tests of trials of life. It is at this point that the poet achieves a minute of penetration. The maulerss are ‘like decorations with their threads. frayed and wavering’ . suggests that the poet now sees the fish as a war veteran. This is a fantastic comparing. The ancient fish is now a symbol for the resiliency of the human spirit and for our capacity to last the vicissitudes of life. This penetration has an uplifting consequence on the poet and so on the reader. I particulary like the optimistic image with which the verse form ends ‘until everything was rainbow. rainbow. rainbow! ’ Having achieved triumph and endurance. the fish deserves to be let travel.
Elizabeth Bishops powers of observation and description. every bit good as her singular ability to accomplish consciousness through reflecting on ordinary. mundane experiences are once more apparent in ‘Filling Station’ The colloquial tone draws us into the verse form ‘Oh. but it is soiled! ’ The image of an ‘overall black translucency’ absolutely conveys the sense of overpowering crud. The poet closely observes every facet of the ‘oil-soaked’ station. even detecting how the father’s monkey suit ‘cuts him under the arms’ . Her close observation of the improbable domestic universe that she encounters here sets her thought. ‘Why the immaterial works? . Why the tabouret? . Why. Ohio why. the doily? ’ . These inquiries reflect the poets admirable wonder to understand the world that lies behind external apperances.
Again we see how contemplation leads to insight. The poet realises that some unobserved individual ( likely a adult female ) has done her best to make some gloss of domestic order in the universe of dirt ‘Somebody waters the works. or oils it maybe’ . Even the oil tins are neatly arranged so as to sooth the fraught nervousnesss of drivers. I enjoyed the poets clever usage of personification every bit good as repeat of the comforting ‘so’ sound: ‘they sofetly say: ESSO-so-so-so to edgy automobiles’ The poet concludes that there is ever person making their best to softly better the quality of our lives. ‘Somebody loves us all’ . As in ‘The Fish’ . poet and reader are uplifted by a really positive. reassuring insight into human life. I like the manner Bishop reflects on a personal experience to detect an uplifting cosmopolitan truth.
‘First Death in Nova Scotia’ describes a kid efforts to come to footings with her first experience of decease. It is particulary poignant because we see the universe through the eyes of an guiltless and baffled kid. Evan as a kid. Bishop was aggressively observant. taking in every facet of the cold parlor. including the old chromographsand the stuffed loon. The description of the exanimate loon as ‘cold and caressable’ efficaciously conveys the kids confusion when confronted with decease. Bishops images are typically inventive: the marble topped table becomes the loons ‘white frozen lake’ . while Arthurs casket is ‘a little frosted cake’ . The simile comparison small Arthur to a ‘doll that hadn’t been painted yet’ is really traveling. foregrounding. as it does. the calamity of a kids decease. Through closely detecting and reflecting on the state of affairs in which she finds herself. the immature Bishop gets a sense of the awful conclusiveness of decease. The kid tries to come up with a happy fairytail stoping to this tragic occurrence by conceive ofing that the royal figures ‘invited Arthur to be the samllest page at court’ . However. she unhappily concludes that her lifeless cousin. trapped in the embracing of decease and seizing his ‘tiny lily’ will be unable to go ‘roads deep in snow’ . It is the kids perspective on decease which makes this poem both interesting and affecting.
To reason. I enjoyed Bishops poerty particualry because of its minutes of penetration. her ability to examine beneath outer visual aspects and discover cosmopolitan truths is really impressive. In footings of her manner. I was struck by her remarkably graphic descriptions and unusual similes and metaphors.
