Elizabeth Bishop

Name five poems

The Fish, Sestina, First Death in Nova Scotia, Filling Station, In the Waiting Room

The Fish: (observational/analytical statement: simple) I cau..

I caught a tremendous fish

The Fish: (drama) He..

He didn't fight.

The Fish: (simile) Here and there..

Here and there his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper

The Fish: (simile) the irises..

the irises backed and packed with tarnished tinfoil seen through the lenses of old scratched isinglass

The Fish: (sibilance): (still crimped from) the

the strain and snap

The Fish: (simile + metaphor, sympathy): like medals.....

like medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering, a five haired beard of wisdom training from his aching jaw

The Fish: (personification, run on line: pace) victory..

victory filled up the little rented boat

The Fish: until everything..

until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! AND I LET THE FISH GO.

Sestina: laughing and talking..

laughing and talking to hide her tears

Sestina: equinoctial..

equinoctial tears

Sestina: (imagery) dark..

dark brown tears

Sestina: (the child draws..)

the child draws a rigid house

Sestina: the little moons..

the little moons fall down like tears from between the pages of the almanac into the flower bed the child has carefully placed in front of the house

Sestina: (personification, direct speech): Time to..

Time to plant tears, says the almanac

First Death in Nova Scotia: (repetition): cold..

cold, cold parlor

First Death in Nova Scotia: (personification of ____): ..fired a bullet..

(personification of loon): fired a bullet into him, he hadn't said a word

First Death in Nova Scotia: (repetition, emphasis on focus of child) his breast..

His breast was deep and white, cold and caressable;

First Death in Nova Scotia: (metaphor): Arthur's coffin..

Arthur's coffin was a little frosted cake

First Death in Nova Scotia: He was all..

He was all white, like a doll that hadn't been painted yet

First Death in Nova Scotia: (juxtaposition(real/make believe), colour symbolism): Jack Frost had..

Jack Frost had started to paint him …Forever).

First Death in Nova Scotia: (repetition, euphemism for death).. and left him..

and left him white, forever.

First Death in Nova Scotia: (rhetorical question, inconclusivity of death): But how..

But how could Arthur go, clutching his tiny lily, with his eyes shut up so tight and the roads deep in snow?

Filling Station: Oh,..

Oh, but it is dirty!

Filling Station: (repetition, hyperbole) oil..

oil-soaked, oil-permeated to a disturbing, over-all black translucency.

Filling Station: (humour) Be careful..

Be careful with that match!

Filling Station: (imagery) grease..

grease-impregnated wickerwork

Filling Station: (rhetorical question) Why..

Why the extraneous plant?

Why the taboret?

Why, oh why, the doily?

Filling Station: (anaphora, humour) Somebody..

Somebody embroidered the doily.

Somebody waters the plant, or oils it, maybe.

Filling Station: (short sentence, impact) Somebody

Somebody loves us all. (absence of a loving mother so loud that it is present)

In the Waiting Room: (repetition) the... , February... , the fifth..

the date ...

February, 1918 ...

the fifth of February, 1918

(grounding, everyone lives the same day, changed completely on day)

In the Waiting Room: (triadic statement) you.., you.., you..

you are an I, you are an Elizabeth, you are one of them.

In the Waiting Room: (metaphor, alliteration, repetition)

The waiting room was bright and too hot. It was slididng beneath a big black wave, another, and another.

(represents light of new clarity, 3 realisations, waves recede and she is saturated still)