Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry has many characteristics that make it appealing. Her poetry links much with her life; a depressing but interesting one, which saw a troubled childhood, many countries and many awards for her poetry. Her celebrations of the ordinary are another appealing characteristic; an unusual yet original quality. Bishop’s poems have a unique style, with a fine combination of vivid imagery and concrete intense language. In addition to this we see detailed descriptions of the exotic and familiar. The poems themselves, while containing this style constantly, vary in poetic form – this is a welcome change instead of the monotonous form of poetry of other poets on the Leaving Certificate course. Finally, her range of themes adds to the variance in poetic form, making each Bishop poem original and of worth in its own right. The poems I have studied are: First Death In Nova Scotia, Filling Station, In the Waiting Room, A Prodigal, The Armadillo and The Fish.
As said, an appealing aspect of Bishop’s poetry is that her poetry links with her life. Bishop has some connection to each poem, and this adds credibility to her poetry. We see that it is real and serves some worth; Bishop does not simply write on some aspect issue – it is something that means a lot to her. In The Fish we see can view Bishop as the fish herself. The fish is affected (physically) by previous turmoil and Bishop talks of “meals with their ribbons/ frayed and wavering,” Likewise Bishop was affected by previous problems herself, from her childhood where she lost her mother to illness and her father through death, which she suffered with for her whole life. Does Bishop here hope for a new lease of life, like she gives to the fish at the end of the poem, when she returns the fish to the sea? Bishop can again be connected to another poem, Filling Station. Here direct reference can be made to Bishop’s mother being permanently hospitalized for mental illness in 1917 when Bishop was young. There...
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