Elizabeth Bishop poetry quotes

The Prodigal: Squalor

The floor was rotten; the sty / was plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dung.

The Prodigal: Addiction

He hid the pints behind a two-by-four.

The Prodigal: Redemption

But it took him a long time / finally to make his mind up to go home.

The Fish: Awe

I caught a tremendous fish / and held him beside the boat.

The Fish: Resilience

He hung a grunting weight, / battered and venerable / and homely.

The Fish: Transcendence

until everything / was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! / And I let the fish go.

At the Fishhouses: Beauty of the Sea

Cold dark deep and absolutely clear, / element bearable to no mortal.

At the Fishhouses: Insight

If you should dip your hand in, / your wrist would ache immediately.

At the Fishhouses: Knowledge

It is like what we imagine knowledge to be: / dark, salt, clear, moving, utterly free.

Filling Station: Initial Perspective

Oh, but it is dirty! / this little filling station.

Filling Station: Care

Somebody embroidered the doily. / Somebody waters the plant.

Filling Station: Universal Love

Somebody loves us all.

Sestina: Mood

September rain falls on the house.

Sestina: Child's Drawing

the child / draws a rigid house / and a winding pathway.

Sestina: Inevitable Sorrow

Time to plant tears, says the almanac.

First Death in Nova Scotia: Atmosphere

In the cold, cold parlor / my mother laid out Arthur.

First Death in Nova Scotia: Innocence of Death

He was all white, like a doll / that hadn’t been painted yet.

First Death in Nova Scotia: Confusion about Mortality

But how could Arthur go, / clutching his tiny lily, / with his eyes shut up so tight?