Poetry question and answer essay on Elizabeth bishop and her use of imagery in her poems. PDF

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This essay discusses Elizabeth bishops use of creative imagery in her poems to aid the understanding of her audience as well as to capture their attention....

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“Elizabeth bishops carefully judged use of language aids the reader to uncover the intensity of feeling in her poetry” To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement. Elizabeth Bishops careful judged use of language helps we as the reader to uncover the intense feelings in her poetry. Bishops’ extreme concentration of the minor details as well as words in her poetry, allows her to paint vivid imagery that will immerse us as readers in the poem. Using poetic techniques such as simile, enjambment as well as metaphors the reader can feel the emotions that Bishop is conveying in the poem. In my opinion I wholeheartedly agree with the above statement. Over the course of this answer, I will discuss her use of language in the poems, the filling station, first death in Nova Scotia, the Prodigal as well as the fish. And show how her use of language in these poems aids the reader to uncover the intensity of the feelings as well as emotions in her poem. Bishop’s poem, ‘The Fish’, thoughtfully uses precise language to reveal a new insight for poet and reader. This careful use of language heightens the poet’s emotional encounter with this magnificent ‘tremendous’ specimen. The fish’s distress is caught in the onomatopoeic ‘grunting’. His beauty is vividly described, his skin’s patterns were ‘like full blown roses’. I felt the poet’s emotional response when she compares his eyes to her own, ‘which were far larger than mine’. Bishop’s emotional thought progress is conveyed in the procession of verbs, ‘I caught’, ‘I thought’, ‘I looked’ and finally, ‘I admired’. She begins to understand as well as admire this war-torn veteran, ‘five big hooks grown firmly in his mouth’ and reaches towards the creature when she notes his ‘aching jaw’. The poet lets ‘the fish go’. She has learned respect. This lesson of respect is also echoed in her poem, ‘Filling Station’ where a dismissive lady driver carefully observes details of family life, ‘comic books, ‘a big dim doily’, ‘a big hirsute begonia’ and ‘a dirty dog quite comfy’. She now learns to value an uninviting place, the ‘dirty’ little filling station and its ‘greasy’ inhabitants. She understands love can be found in the most unexpected, unlikely places. Deep feelings and absorbing reflections are heightened by vivid detail in this poem. Phrases such as ‘shallower, and yellowed, the irises backed and packed with tarnished tinfoil’ develops the imagery and allows us the readers to clearly visualise the fish’s ‘ugly’ appearance. The imagery in the poem is a result of Bishops use of language. This imagery allows us the reader to discover and divulge the intensity of the feelings in the poem. showing us that the poem ‘The Fish’ uses bishops carefully judged use of language which aids the reader to uncover the intensity of feeling and emotions in her poetry.

In the poem filling station Bishop uses a wide range of carefully chosen words to convey the intensity of the feelings as well as emotions. These choices increase the quality of the imagery in the poem which in turn helps us the reader to uncover the hidden powerful emotions and feelings. Language such as ‘oilsoaked monkey suit that cuts under the arms’ and ‘oil soaked, oil permeated to a disturbing, overall black translucency’ allows us the readers to once again imagine the scene in the poem. The way this poem is described we consider it in a masculine way because of all the dirt, oil as well as grease. The poet is trying to convey this idea that to other this filling station will look like it is missing a feminine figure because the traditional role of a female is to clean and take care of the properties. The poet’s description of the porch reinforces our sense of the station as a depressing and deary environment. The furniture has been badly damaged or ‘crushed’ over the years. Like everything else in the filling station, it has been saturated with oil. Even the family dog is ‘dirty’. All these images allow us as the reader to depict the scenario the poet is setting and understand her feeling of disgust that she harbours to the filling station at first. ‘Oh, but it is dirty!’ these feelings of disgust are seen as the poet exhibits a snobbish attitude to the station owners and workers, by painting an extremely unflattering portrait of these workers. They show terrible personal hygiene, being ‘all quite thoroughly dirty’. They are careless as well as neglectful, creating a filthy environment around themselves. The term ‘monkey suits, even suggest and hints that the poet views them as being a little animalistic. The language used here by the poet highlights the intense feelings as well as emotions of distaste and disgust that the poet want to convey to as the readers. Yet even these unpleasant individuals have someone to love them. For the owner’s wife gives them care as well as attention, doing her best to make their working environment more pleasant. ‘Extraneous plant’. The poet then is struck by a sudden moment of understanding. She realizes that everyone has someone to take care and nurture them. Now with this realization she has learned to value an uninviting place. The language used here are mainly rhetorical questions. ‘Why the extraneous pant? Why the tabouret’. These rhetorical questions are used by the poet to foreshadow the inhabitancy of a woman, who loves them and cares for them. Using this language, the disgust transforms into realization. The feelings conveyed in this poem also, change from distaste to surprise as the poet is surprised to realize that there is someone present love these individuals. This shows how Bishops use of language in these poems aids the reader to uncover the intensity of the feelings as well as emotions in her poem.

The next poem where we see Bishops use of language which aids the reader to understand as well as expose the intensity of the feelings and emotions in her poem is the Prodigal. This poem is based on the gospel of St Luke. Inspired by this parable the poem describes an alcoholic farm labourer who is a long way from home. Bishops’ careful choice of words plays a very important role in the imagery of this poem. The beginning of the poem and the starting line itself is full of imagery, ‘The brown enormous odour he lived by was too close, with its breathing and thick hair, for him to judge’. The careful choice of language allows us to visualise as well as the intense smell of the odour and the faeces closeness to the poet. The word enormous allows us as the reader to feel the strength of the smell and it also implies that this dirty, strong scent takes up most of the space in the room. This allows the readers to understand the intense feelings that the poet is conveying. We know that the poet wants to get away from it, that is why the poet uses the word ‘was too close’ implying that the odour is too near by for her liking. The next time we see Bishops use of carefully judged language in this poem is when she describes that beautiful sunset, ‘the sunrise glazed the barnyard mud with red, the burning puddles seemed to reassure’. In this line we can see the colourful sunset that the poet is decrying through her use of careful language. We can feel the intense pleasure that the poet is trying to convey. This pleasure makes the character contemplate that he might be able to stay here in his hellish exile drinking, for another year or longer. ‘And then he thought he almost might endure his exile another year or more’. The enjambment in these lines also convey the intense emotions that are running through the character. As he watches the sunset, he feels suddenly happy and experiences pleasure at that sudden moment while the sun sets. The pigs that live in the pigsty in this poem is a metaphor for bad company that is a result of alcoholism. The character is aware that he is in bad company, and they are ‘sickening’ but because of his addiction these are his only company. By the end of the poem the character realizes his circumstances and discovers that in order to re-join society and get accepted again he must quit his addiction to alcohol. ‘His shuddering insights beyond his control’. By the end of this stanza the poet describes that the character has decided to accept the challenge of quitting to have a chance to go back home. ‘But it took him a long time finally to make his mind up to go home’. The way the poet uses the word finally implies the extended length of time that the character was stuck in his unsightly position. This shows that Bishops

carefully judged use of language and word aid we as the reader in uncovering the intense emotions and feelings that the poet is trying to convey. In the poem First Death in Nova Scotia Bishop uses a lot of carefully judged words in her language to allow her readers to discover the intense feelings and emotions in the poem. The imagery in this poem is from the perception of a little child. From the first stanza the words ‘my mother’ and ‘cold, cold parlour’ is used to highlight the young child’s age the way the poet describes the temperature using the phrase ‘cold, cold’ show us the reader that a child s the narrator because it is a very childish way to explain the temperature. In the second stanza the child describes a ‘loon’ that is dead, but she does not understand it is dead, ‘he hadn’t said a word’. The child sees the table as a “white frozen lake, the marble-topped table”. The childish imagery highlights to us the reader the age of the innocent child who doesn’t understand death but is still attending a funeral. We see the child building a story to grasp the logic of death and trying to gain somewhat of an understanding. “Arthur’s coffin was a little frosted cake, and the red-eyed loon eyed it from his white frozen lake”. “Jack Frost had started to paint him the way he always painted the Maple Leaf (Forever). He had just begun the hair, a few red strokes, and then Jack Frost had dopped the brush and left him white forever”. This story explains why Arthur is white. Th way the poet uses he word “forever” implies that the child is gaining as well as developing and understanding and concept of what death. This story highlights the emotions of confusion that the child has. The child is confused to why Arthur is lying in a coffin and as well why the “loon” is staying still. The imagery in the poem helps and aids the readers to uncover and understand this feeling of confusion that the little child has. The “red strokes” could be a metaphor for blood this could imply that Arthur could have been killed or got a critical fatal injury. The child continues to make up the story by giving Arthur the title of the “smallest page in the court” and the explain and asking herself “how could Arthur go.” “With his eyes shut up so tight”. In these lines the poet uses carefully choice of language to convey that the child is feeling sorry and confused for her cousin Arthur. She is confused to why Arthur is lying in a coffin with his eyes shut up so tight. She feels sorry for Arthur because he can’t leave the coffin. This shows that Bishop uses carefully judged language as well as words to aid her audience to discover as well as understand the deep intense feelings and emotions that she is attempting to convey in the poem “the first death in Nova Scotia”. This proves why in my opinion that Elizabeth Bishops careful judged use of language helps we as the reader to uncover the intense feelings in her poetry.

Bishops’ extreme concentration of the minor details as well as words in her poetry, allows her to paint vivid imagery that will immerse us the readers in her poems. And allow her readers to uncover the deep intense feelings as well as emotions in her poems....