Please pick one of the following prompts:
1)Why do you think Bishop titled her book Geography III? Include a discussion of at least two poems in your response, and make sure to take into consideration the epigraphs that preface the book (the quotes from "First Lessons in Geography").
2)In class on Thursday, I distributed a Poetry Revision Checklist. Please select one of the rules (ie, "Strong Verbs," "Make it New") and discuss how one of Bishop's poems in Geography III shows its successful application. Then, select a different rule, and a different poem, and discuss how she deviates from the rule in that poem. So: two poems, two rules. For the second half of this prompt, I am actually encouraging you to question Bishop's artistic choices. (An example: In "The Moose," Bishop uses what I feel are unnecessary words, which is breaking the rule of economy....)
Click here to listen to Bishop read "In the Waiting Room" and "The Moose."
Within the poem “Night City”, Bishop uses descriptions to convey to reader of what she wants us to see. I love the use of the adjectives to help me envision all of what she was trying to say. “Over those fires no one could walk: those flaring acids and variegated bloods.” Her description of the fire is a metaphor of the pain that is put upon the feet from the broken glass. It is burning and becoming unbearable to the point that it stings of pain. Thus, no one will ever understand how the “fire” feels unless they have been burned of pain. Instead of saying the acids, which is a good word use, but if used by itself it does not have as much meaning to it, unless an adjective is put before and that’s when flaring gives visuals. It brings to life the blood, as if it is flowing from the seep of the shoes and flows on the concrete as the person walks. I also, really love the word variegated as she describes the blood. She could have used the words spots or patches, but she didn’t because it provides a since of realness when she tells the story. Overall this is my favorite stanza from the whole poem; not many words use, but still have a powerful meaning to it.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “One Art”, Bishops uses repetition which at first did not give as much meaning, and made me question as to where she was going with this. As I was reading, it seemed regular as to when someone loses their keys and other objects so I did not see how such normality can be fit into the phrase “The art of losing isn’t hard master.” I feel this way is because Bishop did not say that losing isn’t hard to master, she calls it an art, and so what is so special of losing something special as trinkets. As I continued to read I finally realized the meaning in the repetitive phrase, when it takes a twist in the last stanza. “Even losing you...I shan’t have lied. It’s evident the art of losing’s not too hard to master though it may look like...like disaster.” It took a turn to love, which is something I never thought it was going to do. Here her repetitive phrase has meaning, that brings it alive and I now can relate to it. The art that she refers to is love, and that is not hard to master it, especially true love. To lose it, is very hard and trying to convince yourself that you’re over it, you’re not. It may look as though love is no longer lingering it is displayed on paper; secretive. The place that you can be honest with one’s self. With that said this is my favorite from Geography III because I find myself relating to the poem that most. I was once in love and thought I was over it, until I started to write a poem and found that it was about the person I thought I was over.
In the poem “One Art” it talked about about a person loosing things all his life and it isn’t hard to master the art of losing things. He goes on to say he lost his keys, place, names, and cities. At the end of the poem he losses someone he loves. He now realizes that he has been lying to himself and that loosing something you love is hard to master. She also says in the lsat two lines “the art of losing’s not too hard to master though it may look like (write it!) like disaster.” When she says this in her last two lines she is telling me that she has been telling herself that loosing things isn’t hard to master but even though it looks she is fine she is a total disaster in the inside but you would never be able to tell just looking at her. Also in this poem it use repetition requires variation. It uses this when Bishop repeats disaster and master in every other line. Every time Bishop uses these words in every other line it has has a different effect on the reader.
ReplyDeleteThe second poem is “The End of March” in this poem it used a lot of imagery to create the world it is trying to describe. I think if you were to close your eyes and think about some of the words she is using you would see some of the things it is describing. In this poem I think it uses use your senses because it creates this world with the words and imagery it uses. Even at the end of this poem in the last stanza it talks about the shadows in the sky and it looks like she is using her imagination to describe some of things she is talking about in the last stanza. Also another place in the poem were I think it uses your senses is in the first stanza were it is describing how the temperature was and how the ocean is moving. It also says how the wind numbed her face, there was geese flying and there was a steely mist. In the first stanza that I just described, if I close my eyes I can definitely see what she is describing. She paints a picture in my mind when I read this poem.
I think in the poem “ The End of March” she went on and on about describing things. She just could have left some things out. I also think in this poem Bishop is also using description vs exposition. I think Bishop told us what it is was like instead of showing us what it was like. Bishop also uses diction in her poem because she had good choices of words she used in her poem. I think the poem was little dragged out, she could have cut somethings out.
Geography III seems like a fitting title to the collective poems in the book. Most of the things Bishop discusses in all of the poems have some basis in travel. The epigraphs, I think, were also helpful little explanations for the book. It seemed as though Bishop wanted to forewarn her readers as to what they were getting themselves into, if the title wasn’t enough in its self. For example, the first poem of the book, “In the Waiting Room” kind of explains the geography of the mind and aging. The poem begins, most likely, with a young girl who is waiting for her aunt to come out of the dentist’s office. She is, as the title suggests, in the waiting room where she decides to pick up a copy of National Geographic. This is another nod to geography because out of everything this girl could have read she chose the wonders and pictures of National Geographic. She reads it through, noting the oddities that appear on each page until suddenly she hears a faint cry; it is her aunt except it is also her. She hears “the family voice” and is thrown into a different reality in which she has aged into her aunt. It is a frightening thing to be confronted with, and she looks in every direction of this reality for a little help, but finds instead that we are all connected in a very unsettling way. Finally, she returns to her geographic location once again, even noting the weather and precise date. The poem seems fitting to start off the book because while commenting on something that seemingly has nothing to do with geography, Bishop takes us there; intertwining her title and the epigraph with the poem and a bending reality. Probably one of the top two poems, for me, within Geography III, is “Crusoe in England.” I really enjoyed finally reading the entirety of it. When we read it in class I didn’t like it, but I wasn’t getting the whole picture then. The whole poem is a geographic catalogue of the things that make Crusoe’s island so beautiful, however, Crusoe describes in a way that only a shipwrecked man can. There are thought provoking images, like the idea of being a giant among the many volcanoes and then thinking, “…I couldn’t bear to think what size the goats and turtles were….” It is a geographic world of wear only to end in Crusoe’s rescue and return to England. Then it is the museums that try to catalogue Crusoe, and he finds it quit unnerving and strange. He asks, “How can anyone want such things?” and then he ends on a very personal note of how his friend died. Bishop does such a mesmerizing job of telling a tale seemingly based in observation but still so filled with human emotion. I also really loved “12 O’clock News.” The whole poem is described in such a cold and calculating way. At first I didn’t quit get what her point was, except to list and list things she read or saw in the news, but by the end of the poem the whole tone changed. The news and country of the people talked in such a way it reminded me of how a bird might think of us. It reminded me of God, and by the end I was so sure that in fact it was God, or possibly an angle, giving the news of what was happening down below. Bishop does this, seemingly effortlessly and changes the perspective of geography to not just what is in the epigraph, but her own idea of the word and what it means to her and the world.
ReplyDeleteIn reading Geography III, Elizabeth Bishop wrote poems of deep reflection. At times, I had difficulties relating to Bishop and becoming attuned to the messages that she was trying to unveil. However, I was able to pick pieces of several poems that I thought were extremely creative. I felt as though Bishop did a good job “showing” rather than “telling” the readers about the images that she was trying to convey. On the poetry checklist, this means that she could check the "Description vs. Exposition" box. Examples of where Bishop did a nice job "showing" rather than "telling" are present in "The Moose." I feel that when Bishop described the way that the pink of the windshield was "brushing the dented flank of blue, beat-up enamel;" was extremely witty. Utilizing the terms "brushing" and "enamel" created an image that related the way the pink of the windshield brushing up against the windshield was similar to the way that we'd brush our teeth. While I'm not sure if my interpretations of Bishop's creativity result from my previous reading of her reference to the dentist's office in the poem "The Waiting Room,” the fact that I'm a dentistry major, or if she truly meant to make the connections that I made, I liked her imagery. Shortly after these lines, Bishop describes how the collie "supervises" a traveler who is parting from a group of relatives. The use of the word "supervises" allowed me to create a picture of the dog, staring like a supervisor at a middle school dance (patiently in silence). Using the word "supervise" allowed Bishop to keep a flow in the poem and ignite an image without getting to wordy. These types of words make Bishop’s poems strong.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the entire book, there was one word that stood out to me as being the most unnecessary and incohesive with the rest of Bishop's work. This word appears in "Objects and Apparitions." The stanza reads "A comb is a harp strummed by a glance/ of a little girl/ born dumb." I felt as though the use of the word "dumb" completely lacked description and was too offensive to seem compatible to the rest of the poem's flow. Instead of continuing the read the poem, I felt offended and became defensive. I felt as though I should try to protect the young girl from the designation of being “dumb” and to support her creativity of creating an instrument from such a common item. While I pondered about what Bishop was trying to achieve with the use of the word, I wondered, “What does "dumb" mean anyway?” Besides being a word that I was never allowed to use when I was younger, "dumb" is an abstract term that took away from my reading of the poem. On the poetry checklist, I would say that Bishop needs to revisit the second mark: "strong verbs." To me, using offensive words like “dumb” can definitely harm the credibility of the poem and the way that the poem is read. I would really like to hear Bishop’s explanation on the word choice. Until then, I am not too happy with her decision.
Prompt 2
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “Crusoe in England”, I thought Bishop did a very good job of using description to allow the reader to get in the mindset she wants one to be in. Her brilliant use of adjectives allows one to get this deeper feeling and know exactly what she is talking about. In the second stanza she writes “small volcanoes I could climb with a few slithery strides…” Instead of just saying she could hike up these small volcanoes easily, she conveys to the reader this sense of these small gliding or sliding like steps up to the top of the volcano. In the same stanza she makes another brilliant description of the volcano’s that the narrator would look at while sitting on the edge of the largest volcano around. “I used to sit on the edge of the highest one and count the others standing up, naked and laden, with their heads blown off.” Bishop could have just easily said that the volcanoes were bare, nothing special to look at, and all of their tops had been blown off. But instead, the description that she uses about the volcanoes being naked and leaden allows the reader to get this miserable and somewhat dreary feeling. Also in that same line, rather than saying the volcanoes had blown their tops off, Bishop describes them as having their heads blown off and this gives the reader a completely different image as to what this person in the poem was actually looking at or thinking about.
Within the poem “The Moose”, the rhythm and the rhyme scheme that Bishop puts on display really does a good job of enhancing the poem. The poem is about a bus traveling to Boston through the towns, fields, and forests of New Brunswick. The bus stops because a moose is in the middle of the road, and this essentially breaks up the talking of the elderly passengers in the back. Their talk was about dismal subjects such as death and sickness and the rhyme scheme and rhythm definitely adds to the elderly passengers voices who are talking. Their constant talking creates somewhat of dismal humming sound and the rhythm and rhyme scheme allow the reader to get a sense of their droning hum while talking. For instance the lines “A sharp, indrawn breath, half groan, half acceptance, that means “Life’s like that. We know it (also death)”” and also “A dreamy divagation begins in the night, a gentle, auditory, slow hallucination…” These rhyme schemes and rhythm enhance the readers feelings about the atmosphere on the bus, and it also enhances the poem by showing one how ordinary and uneventful these elderly peoples’’ lives actually are. The constant rhyming and rhythm goes hand in hand with the tranquil hum of the elderly passengers voices.
Compared to all her other poems, I thought that the opening lines, or the welcome mat, to Bishop’s poem “In the Waiting Room” was rather bland. All her other opening lines, I felt, were very well constructed and did a good job of inviting me into the poem. I just feel that Bishop’s opening lines to this poem did not seem very well constructed and there was nothing that really pulled me in and made me want to read it. For me, it seemed like she did not do a good job of creating a picture of the waiting room in my head and she seemed to use rather ordinary and simple adjectives. Her description of winter and the objects and people in the waiting room were too vague and I think she could have done a better job at grabbing my attention in the beginning.
I am going to be writing on prompt two because it was actually easy to see the different rules that were being used while reading her poems. After going through the checklist and reading the poem “In the Waiting Room,” the description v. exposition rule really stood out to me. There was never a really boring moment in this poem. I actually felt like I was there, inside the waiting room at the dentist office. Some of the descriptions were short and sweet, but I think that is what makes you want to read more. In other poems I have read, the description of one place went on and on, and I just got tired of reading about it. This poem does justice to the descriptions in the poem. Since this poem is at the beginning of the book, I feel that she had to make sure people reading this book would be automatically drawn in.
ReplyDeleteThe description of the National Geographic, how she described the volcano and “then it was spilling over in the rivulets of fire…,” and she also really described the woman in the magazine very detailed. This part of the poem just pulled me in; I felt like I was the one who was reading the magazine in the waiting room because I couldn’t stop reading this stanza. Another reason I was kind of drawn towards writing about this poem was the fact that she uses the name “Elizabeth” and the month of February, specifically the fifth of the month. This was just so ironic to me because my birthday is the seventh, and obviously my name is Elizabeth. On page six, when she is describing the person on the table under the lamp, I felt like I was actually there in the room. Also, at the end of the poem when she is illustrating to us what the room was like, “the waiting room was bright and too hot. It was sliding beneath a black wave, another, and another.” This line just makes me ponder about what it would be like to see something slide under a black wave, which is just extremely intriguing to me. Overall, I really enjoyed this poem, and the descriptions in it were enough to make you feel like you were in the waiting room.
On the other hand, when I had to find things that needed to be fixed in a poem by using the checklist, I decided to write about “Moose.” I really had a hard time staying focused on this poem to be honest. This poem had a problem with economy from what I saw. There were many times throughout the poem where I saw words being used over and over, but not in any significant way. I found almost a 100 articles being used that were probably very unnecessary. Besides the excessive amount of useless words, I also found that many times she would be describing something in a stanza and use one word, but then in the next line use the exact same word to describe something else. For example, “the windshield flashing pink, pink glancing off of metal…”I feel like in some of these cases she could have combined the lines together somehow or maybe used a different word. I though this poem lacked diction, and the over usage of small words throughout the poem really brought it down.
In Bishops Geography III she was describing many of the places that she had visited in her travels. I think this is the reason for the title of her book. I like how she wrote a book about the different places that she had been too and the things that she had seen when she was there. I think she does one of the best jobs of describing her journeys in the poem The Moose. In this poem she does a great job in the way she talks about the imagery in detail. A good example is in the third stanza “silted red, sometimes the sun sets facing a red sea, and others, veins the flats’ lavender, rich mud in burning rivulets”. I really like the detail that she uses in this quote because it lets me be a part of what she is seeing and feeling at this time. Bishop also uses specific places in this poem, such as, “Bass River”, “Tantramar marshes”, and “The New Brunswick woods”. This is another reason why she may have named the book Geography III. I like the end of the poem when she describes the way the bus stops and how the moose comes up next to the bus to investigate. I like the way she describes the interaction the people on the bus and the moose have. I think the quote “Why, why do we feel (we all feel) this sweet sensation of joy?” can connect with the reader because I know in my life that there have been times when driving the interstate I see deer or turkey and I feel so lucky that I was able to see them, even though its happen so many times I always get that little feeling of joy that she is talking about. The poem Poem also does a great job in the way it uses in depth detail to putt the reader in the shoes of Bishop. One example is right at the beginning “About the size of an old-style dollar bill, American or Canadian, mostly the same whites, gray greens, and steel grays—this little painting (a sketch for a larger one?)” this gives me an idea of what the poem may be about right away. I think in this poem Bishop finds a painting or a small version of one that her family or a close friend had when she was a young child. The poem continues to describe a place that seems to be familiar to her. Later at the end of the poem it seems like this place that is in the painting was a family farm because she talks about how she knows the place but never knew the person who painted it. These poems both do a good job in explaining why Bishop may have title her book “Geography III” all the poems tell of places that she was at or had been before.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “One Art,” Bishop makes great use of the welcome mat rule. This rule states that the title of a poem and the first few lines invites the reader in and sets up expectations for the rest of the poem. It also says to try to take out the beginning to see how it sounds because the first few lines are often simply a lead-in. “One Art” is very powerful because it deals with loss, and Bishop dealt with a lot of loss in her life. She is trying to convince herself to basically get used to losing everything and not get upset about it. It is sad for someone trying to condition herself to loss because she is always experiencing it. It is very interesting that Bishop actually calls losing an art, and something that can be mastered. Art is usually something created with some aesthetic appeal, not an emotional response. I think Bishop calls it an art because it is so hard for her, yet she is trying to come up with something to categorize it so she can deal with it. Just thinking of losing or losing someone can be harder on you than if you give it a property that can be mastered. The title is great because it pinpoints one art, which is the art of emotional loss, when she mentions losing many other physical things throughout the poem. She is specifically talking about the art of losing someone you love. I also think the beginning could not be taken out in this poem. They successfully set up the language Bishop uses throughout the poem, the somber tone of it, and the beauty in which it was written with the rhyme and meter.
ReplyDeleteEven though I liked the poem “The Moose,” I thought the rhyme and meter made it too sing-songy at times. Bishop deviates from the rule of surface features, which are rhyme, meter, alliteration and consonance. I liked the sound of some of the stanzas, but I couldn’t think of a reason for this poem to have that sing-song quality. The only thing I could think of was possibly the constant rumble of the bus ride, but that isn’t exactly sing-songy. I could see maybe just a constant meter symbolizing the rumble of the bus, which she uses usually six syllables in a line. Obviously the most important part of the poem, because it is also the title, is the moose. If the poem has a specific rhyme and meter, it should have something to do with the moose, but I don’t see how it does. The rhyme scheme is also inconsistent. It is in the last words of lines if it is in a stanza, but it’s not in all of them, and the second and third lines are sometimes rhymed, or the first and fourth or the last two. And some of the rhymes are as simple as sea and tea, or slant rhymes such as macadam and dim. I don’t know if this is unimportant or not, it was another thing I didn’t understand about the surface features of the poem.
Alexa Fontana
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Bishop Blog Post
Elizabeth Bishop’s collection of poems “Geography III” included a wide range of poetry about many different topics. I feel that this is the reason that it was given its title. The meaning of geography is the study of description, distribution and interaction of the diverse physical creatures of the world. After seeing the true meaning of geography, I think that this is why this word was chosen to title Bishop’s book of poems. I am sure that her extensive travels in her adult life also contributed to the word geography being used to describe her collection of poems.
In “The First Lessons of Geography” a series of questions is asked to explain geography and address questions dealing with geography. I think that this section was also included because of her travels around the world because as she was traveling I am sure she was exposed to many different types of people and cultures. However, she used that experience as ideas and topics for her writing and I am sure that the entire experience of traveling was a growing experience for her and made her a stronger and more well rounded person.
I really enjoyed reading the poem “In the waiting room”. I feel like this poem is easy to relate to. She uses great detail to describe the setting and set an emotion level, which also helped in understanding this poem.. I liked that words that she used to describe the winter- slushy, cold, night, and also the fact that she explained that it got dark out really. I think that her description of winter set a mood for the poem. Also, I enjoyed how this poem was written from a child’s perspective rather than an adult’s. I have not read to many poems that step into a child’s shoes but I think that this put me in a different mid set as I read the poem. I think that everyone can relate to what it feels like sitting in a waiting room as a child. There can be many emotions that run through a child’s head- anxiety, fear, excitement, etc. And I feel that this poem did a nice job at conveying the different emotions. This child also has mature ideas- for example- the idea of falling off of the world, even though she is only going on seven years old. That aspect of the poem also related to the idea od geography.
“Five Flights Up” began with a detailed examination of different settings in nature. This poem discuses one-day turning into another, and the animals that watch it happen. However, the animals do not have a real sense of what is happening with the days. I especially like the words that she used to describe the morning- meticulous, ponderous. I thought that the sound of those words made the poem a bit more interesting as it was read. I also like how she ended the poem with parentheses because I think that having those gives the poem a mysterious ending.
The Moose – Description vs. Exposition
ReplyDeleteI do not know much about poetry, or am able to pick out good techniques unless I am really looking for them. However, throughout my schooling, whenever I wrote something, all professors would stress how important it is to show the reader with words and not just simply tell them what is going on. When reading the poem by Elizabeth Bishop titled The Moose, what really stood out to me was how she, in many places, definitely did not show the reader, but told him or her. In some places I feel that there is a lot of good language but a somewhat clear picture of what is happening in the scene was not created for me. For example, when she wrote about the grandparents in the back of the bus talking, it might have added to the bus scene because many people can picture what that is like to be on a bus and to over hear people talking in the back. However, I was only able to make a mental picture because I have experienced that before, and not because of her word choices. To me, she seemed to talk about them and not really explain or use any language that furthered the poem. There also seems to be a lot of simple language that is not very descriptive. For example, one part of the poem states, “down hollows, up rises, and waits, patient, while a lone traveler gives kisses and embraces to seven relatives and a collie supervises.” Here, it is a relatively simple scene she is having played out. However, this is Bishop telling the reader about it and not showing him or her.
In the Waiting Room – Lines
What I first noticed about the poem, In the Waiting Room, was how each line is relatively the same length. To me, it made reading the poem more interesting because it is interesting to see what is going to be put in each short line. The way Bishop uses the technique of enjambment with the short lines made the poem better and just more enjoyable for me too. Examples of the enjambment I like include, “What took me completely by surprise (enjambment) was that it was me.” What I liked about where this technique was used, was that the line before the enjambment is completely emotion filled, so it made me want to know exactly what it was that took this little girl by surprise. The break in the line added suspense too. Another enjambment I like is, “My aunt was inside what seemed like a long time and while I waited I read (enjambment) the National Geographic.” This enjambment was like a climactic moment in a way because it made me question what it was that she was reading, and then National Geographic had its own line.
Lastly, I liked the choice of the short and simple lines because the main character in the poem is a seven year old girl. These lines seem to mirror how a person that young would think and act—simply.
After reading two poems from Bishops book, “Geography III” I feel the reason she titled her book this was because each poem talks about the Earth’s surface. In the preface of the book she defines the word Geography as a description of the Earth’s surface. In all the poems she may not speak directly to where it is obvious about the surface of the Earth but she does make a reference or description of it at some point. As I discuss and analyze the poems I chose to read, I found it was easy to recognize that Bishop was referring to geography.
ReplyDeleteThe first poem I chose to read was the first poem in the book titled, “In the Waiting Room.” I chose to read this poem because I thought it was a challenge to determine the meaning behind it. It does refer to particular geographical characteristics which I will discuss. First off the poet tells us of the destination in which the poem is taking place. This is in the north eastern part of the United States in Worcester, Massachusetts. It takes place in dentist’s office in the winter time. Bishops begins to talk about and describe what she reads as she opens a popular magazine titled, the “National Geographic.” First thing she notices in the magazines are the volcanoes and their descriptions. Volcanoes are part of the Earth and do form new parts of the Earth in creating islands from its lava streams. She then begins to describe a tribal nation and how they present themselves in their culture. Thus we see the norms that which they live by. In describing these tribal people, we realize they are of a different destination on this Earth, a different location that which lives a whole new lifestyle. Then she begins to question herself in the lines, “But I felt: you and I, you are an Elizabeth, you are one of them, Why should you be one, too?” I find it interesting questioning her these particular question. It was although she was from a different geographical area, they were the still people. They just had different cultural norms and lifestyles.
The next poem I chose to read was “Night City From the Plane.” I chose this poem because I felt it was a very detailed poem that gave the reader a good image of what the poet was saying and describing. I like in the first stanza when the poet talks about the terrain being something no foot could walk on no matter if an individual wore a shoe or not. I feel like the poet is describing a view from a seat of an airplane. Perhaps a town or city that was just destroyed by a volcano’s river of lava? In the third stanza it mentions a lake that which begins to smoke then in the beginning of the fourth stanza it says the city burns guilt. Also in the sixth stanza it says, “to where run, molten, in the dark environs green and luminous silicate rivers.” I feel this describes the lakes being filled with molten lava and with the city all destroyed there is nowhere that has not been destroyed. So I felt like it described a geographical area located near a volcano that has erupted thus destroying the area nearest. As a result a new island perhaps will be created. Thus I feel Bishop’s reasoning for titling her book, “Geography III” is because in her poems she incorporates the world’s surface and certain characteristics of its surface.
I am choosing to respond to the first prompt, about why Bishop entitle the book Geography III. At my first glance of this question, I begin to think about the nature imagery, and the references to many places around the world. I looked up the formal definition of geography, and it is the study of the Earth and its atmosphere, and of the human activity as these, population distribution, resources, industry, and land use, affects it. After I read this formal definition, I could gather why Elizabeth Bishop decided to call her book Geography III. In a sense, most of her poems in this book are studying how humans interact with the world. There are many poems that reference this theme in the book, but I am going to talk about only two, “Crusoe in England” and “Night City.” The beginning pages of the book reference a quote from “First Lessons in Geography,” and I believe that these opening pages are meant to give the reader a sense of questioning, when we examine our effects on the Earth, because everything that is referenced is of human origin. Nothing that is listed can exist without the human thought about it, and that is what geography is, all human formulated ideas about the Earth and how we inhabit it. In “Crusoe in England,” Bishop writes about Crusoe on his island for the many years, and how he connects with it, he studies it while he lives there for many years. In essence, he learns the geography of the island himself; he applies the human mind to figuring out the geography of the island. Bishop even says in Crusoe’s voice that he knew that he “had to live on/ each and every one [island], eventually,/ for ages, registering their flora,/ their fauna, their geography.” This shows what Bishop is trying to say the need for knowledge of our surroundings is evident on every level, and on every island that Crusoe will live on. This book is about discovery. “Crusoe in England” is a poem about a human’s experience in a place of unknown geography, and of the discovery that he has in front of him. The poem ends with Crusoe in England again, and his sense of discovery, his sense of geography is gone. He is confused why the English people are so interested his possessions, because they were his discoveries and not theirs. The next poem is “Night City,” and I believe that this confirms why Bishop entitled her book Geography III as well. This poem is about the growth of cities with human interaction. The growth of pollution, and the rise of skyscrapers all take away from the natural beauty of the Earth while still contributing to the geography of the Earth, because humans are affecting it. People are so caught up in improving their surroundings that they are losing the natural geography of the Earth. Bishop wants people to slow down and experience their lives, not always growing and improving, but living. This qualifies Bishops title as well because it shows us the effects of human society on the Earth’s geography. Bishop’s book is filled with nature imagery, which also fills up the sense of geography throughout the poems, and about preserving the beauty of the Earth. As for being called three, I am unsure of this, but she might be trying to publish herself with having her own lesson in geography just like the epigraphs at the beginning. These are my thoughts on the title, even though they might be a little jumbled, over all I really enjoyed the book though.
ReplyDeletePrompt 2:
ReplyDeleteWhen I first began to read Elizabeth Bishop’s Geography III I didn’t know what to expect. Her different yet unique spin on geography interested me. In the first poem “In the Waiting Room,” I felt that Bishop did an excellent job “showing” the reader the world of her poem instead of “telling” them what it’s like. I especially liked the way she began to describe the waiting room. She starts off by saying “The waiting room was full of grown-up people, arctics and overcoats, lamps and magazines.” In this brief sentence you get the sense that the poem was set sometime during the winter, and that the waiting room itself was a bit crowded. Another good use of description was when she mentioned that she could read, telling me even before she mentions her age that she was a fairly young girl. My favorite part of the poem was when Bishop described herself reading the National Geographic magazine, and her reactions to it. She was most captivated by the Thailand women in the magazine, “Babies with pointed heads wound round and round with string; black, naked women with necks wound round and round with wire like the necks of light bulbs.” She even speaks of their breast and how shocking they looked to her. This scene reminded me of when I was a child and how I reacted when I would read or look at something that was completely foreign to me, especially National Geographic. Also, I liked her transition from listening to her aunt scream in the dentist office to her questioning who she was. Going on about why she has to be one of them, but the part I didn’t understand was what “them” she was talking about. I know that the war she makes mention too was the Civil War since the National Geographic she was reading said 1918, which was the year the Civil War ended. Also, she comments on her last sentence saying that “it was the fifth of February, 1918.” Lastly, I liked her use of imagery when she talked about herself falling into a cold black space. Overall, I really enjoyed this poem and felt it used the description vs. exposition rule the best.
On the other hand, in the poem “The Moose”, without even reading the prompt I felt that this poem was confusing and way too wordy. I barely understood the poem, and had to keep re-reading sentences and phrases over and over again. I am certain that this poem violates the economy rule in the checklist. I feel there are many instances where she could have taken out a whole chunk of words and made the statement a lot more simple and comprehensive. For instance, “Its cold, round crystals form and slide and settle in the white hens’ feathers, in gray glazed cabbages, on the cabbage roses and lupins like apostles.” For one this sentence is way too wordy and I can barely decipher what she is trying to get across. To me, it almost feels like I am reading a foreign language and the words just seem like gibberish to me. To clean up this stanza I feel that she can start off by just saying "its cold crystals" in stead of "cold, round crystals.”By saying round I feel she is depriving a crystal of its true form. I haven’t yet to see a crystal that is perfectly round. They are usually jagged and unique in shape. Also, I feel like she can take out the word slide in her second line. I feel that the word is not necessary and has no effect on the poem's overall message. Also, I would like to take out the word glazed in the third line for the same reason. Overall, I felt that Bishop used too many adjectives in this poem which made it hard to read and understand. I felt that this was one of the worse poems in her book due to the poor word choice and structure.
In Bishop’s poem “Night City From the Plane” she closely follows many of the checklist revisions, yet her strongest quality is her diction, which accomplishes a distinctive tone and enhances the physical senses within. Bishop’s limited word use definitely does not undermine her poetry, yet places the phrasing in a logical, exacting point. In the first stanza, how Bishop opens the first line sets the tone of the poem, and the image of a destructive city. Later, how the city’s response to the chaos “flaring acids” “variegated blood” “city burns with tears” “city burns guilt” “turgid blood” “incandescent, its wire drips” all are excellent examples of the issues. From this, Bishop also humanizes the city, giving it sensory qualities, not only the smells and sights, but the emotional aspects of pain and guilt. All of these short and concise lines narrate to the reader a stronger sense of destruction, which is better revealed in this form than an exposition. Even Bishop’s use of the word “creatures” designates humans as incompatible, and unable to fix such issues that lie deep in the city’s destroyed beauty. The last lines of the final stanza demonstrate the intertwined connection of diction and rhythm: “They set down their feet, they walk green, red; green, red.” The form in which Bishop places this overturned mechanic like city is clearly obvious in this set of lines with the people walking in syngamy with the green and red stoplights. Nature is desolate within the city which occupies the fires, blood, smoke, and acids; highly unlike any tranquility that is symbiotic with nature.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the poetry revision checklist, Bishop deviates from the idea of using descriptive poetry by her exposition methods in the poem “In the Waiting Room”. From the beginning of the poem, the narrator is plainly stating the trip to the office in an almost script like manner. This form breaks another one of the poetry checklist rules: Strong verbs. Bishop uses lines such as: “It was winter” (line 6) “It got dark early” (lines 6-7) to portray the wintery scene outside, and later describes the office “arctics and overcoats, lamps and magazines” (line 8-9) in yet an oversimplified, once again phrase scripting manner. These images do contribute to the wintery scene, yet her later details with the National Geographic magazine make these lines arbitrary and weak. Later in the poem, readers discover that the narrator is a seven year old Bishop, and this poem is an excerpt from her memories starting in Worcester, Massachusetts. Acknowledging that this in the first poem in Bishop’s book “Geography III” helps place the first adventure or discovering in her journey through life. It was this seven year old experience that has somehow altered Bishop’s perceptive on life, and possibility even her sexuality. In this poem Bishop, although trying to characterize her seven year old self, goes entirely too far in a simplified boring form. Later, in line 49, “I was my foolish aunt” demonstrates her connection with her Aunt Consuelo, yet this line is completely unnecessary for the form of the poem. Rather, if Bishop wanted to make this connection or a sense of this, she should not used this line, yet possibly she should have mirrored images of a congruence or distance between the Aunt and her seven year old self. In lines 90-91 “The waiting room was bright and too hot,” might characterize a seven year old girl’s language abilities, yet most of the poem deviates from this language in the later descriptive lines that do shape an overriding image of the women in the National Geographic magazine. These lines are also useless in the context of the poem because Bishop does later form the complete images with a descriptive sense unlike her girl-like expositions earlier in the poem: “black, naked women with necks wound rounding and round with wire like the necks of light bulbs” (lines 28-30) and “the sensation of falling off the round, turning world into cold, blue black space” (lines 57-59).
What I find especially appealing about Elizabeth Bishop’s Geography III is her poems’ ability to go beyond the boundaries of observation. She seeks and succeeds in taking images from what seems to be her daily existence and scrutinizes these moments to the point of perfection. Bishop surveys the world with the most multifarious of eyes, mapping out each and every complexity, every intricacy with the utmost precision.
ReplyDeleteIn “Crusoe in England,” remarks on a number of Robinson’s memories of his island, as the poem is written with the voice of an aging Crusoe. Just as the science geography seeks to map out the walls of our world, so does Bishop draw the walls and limits of Crusoe’s memory. As the speaker describes the beaches as “all lava, variegated,/ black, red, and white, and gray;/ the marbled colors made a fine display” it is apparent that Bishop has captured an intimate glance at what could simply be described as “beach” or “sand.” Rather, she goes so far as to illuminate the beauty and sublime nature of things. She pays a due respect to all aspects of nature and land and water and being—like a map gives value to each and every speck of land.
Considering the fast-paced nature of contemporary life, too often do humans err in taking the time to admire creation and the crafted features of our world. Bishop strives to shed light on such sights that often slip past the naked eye. In things, Bishop finds a certain kind of solace. She obviously carefully meditates on objects, observations, and occurrences before beginning to work on describing said things. Imagine a map assembled from a blind man’s hand, it would be of no use. The same can be said of poetry that lacks observational substance. Bishop tries to bridge the gap between the natural world and our mind, starting with the general and whimsically moving her way towards the particular.
In “Poem,” Bishop recalls a day: “the air is fresh and cold; cold early spring/ clear as gray glass; a half inch of blue sky/ below the steel-gray storm clouds.” In her description, Bishop keeps in mind that saying “a cold spring day” is not sufficient enough to serve justice to her recollection. In terms of the title of the book, Bishop is clearly taking note of what too many poems lack: accurate portrayal of the environment.
It must also be taken in to consideration that a number of the poems in the Geography III collection were based on Bishop’s travels. So vivid is the imagery in her works that it is a wonder how one being can possess such an enigmatic pair of eyes. Bishop’s capacity for never skipping an observational beat reflects on the inherent confidence we place in geography. Her poetry will survive in the literary world as long as there is an eye or an ear in search of a map-like perfection.
There could be many reasons why Elizabeth Bishop titled her book Geography III. My thoughts on why she chose this title is because of her experiences she had throughout her life. From reading the essay by Bonnie Costello, we learned that Bishop traveled a lot. She lived in Nova Scotia and traveled to many other places such as: France, Spain, North Africa, Ireland, and Italy. My guess is that she was inspired by all that she has experience in her life and it is shown through her poetry. What is geography? In the preface of her book she quotes what it is. She lets us know what the earth, a map, directions on a map, and what other things are. When she talks about the direction on a map I thought about the fact that she has been in all directions: north, south, east, and west.
ReplyDeleteThere is something about the earth and nature that intrigues Bishop to write about it in her poems. I looked up geography to see what other views I could find. Interesting ones are as follows: Character, arrangement, and interrelations over the world; climate, elevation, soil, vegetation, population, land use, industries, or states; life on earth, including human life and the effects of humans. I decided to find other definitions because while reading Bishops work, I realized it was not just about earth’s land forms surfaces. I think her poems have to be about nature. The nature of life on earth: humans, plants, animals, etc. Who we are as individuals that live on this earth and how we affect it and vice versa and how we affect each other. Along with nature, Bishop writes about objects of meaning and loss and plays around with the mystery of things. A lot of her poems show this.
The first poem I want to discuss is Night City From The Plane. Bishop talks about the fire having a mind of its own and destroying everything it touches: glass, bottles, the city, etc. The covering of the sky to where she says it’s dead. All that can make something beautiful in ones eyes is covered in darkness. In other words, how the loss of a city can affect the living and non living things is a hard to deal with. Knowing the fact that there is nothing possible for one to do to stop something like a fire is devastating. She uses words in this poem that refers to geography: Silicate Rivers, bitumen, and fire. The second poem I want to discuss is 12 O’Clock News. In this poem Bishop has it set up as news from all over the world taking about different geological issue going on. From the escarpment that rises abruptly to a slight landslide. She then flips it from just talking about issues to the loss of lives: A man dying from falling off an escarpment and eight soldiers dying in warfare. I found this poem to be very interesting. The issue of loss is seen a lot throughout this book.
I wonder if the reason she writes about loss so much has to do with her losing both are her parents, one through death. Other poems Bishop depicts geography or loss include; One Art, which she states: losing her mothers watch, three houses, a continent, etc; Crusoe in England, which she talks about her island being born from the lava of a volcano, but ultimately it was taking from her and she had to live on another island. Bishop has visited and lived in different areas on earth. Each one I think has influenced her in the way she writes. The vision she has is one of nature, loss, objects and mystery in regards to living and nonliving things on this earth. Each one contributes to the differences in geography all over the world. She does a wonderful job of depicting, “ the questions we live by,” as Bonnie Costello put it.
Prompt #1
ReplyDeleteI am not really sure why Elizabeth Bishop would choose to include “First Lessons in Geography”. This section does not seem to match the rest of her poems. Both the questions and answers in this section are so non-descriptive, which is so different from Bishop’s way of writing poems. Bishop’s writing seems very descriptive, maybe over descriptive at times. However, as I think about it more maybe that was Bishop’s point of including this preface to the book? Perhaps, she was trying to emphasize her fascination with the earth and its geography. She is taking something non-descriptive and turning it upside down, trying to view the earth from every angle, every turn and twist, trying to make sense of what she sees. In a way, Elizabeth seems to be trying to understand herself by first understanding the world and what she sees. For example, in the first poem “In the Waiting Room”, Elizabeth is describing a young girl who is sitting in the waiting room at a dentist’s office, waiting for her aunt. The young girl begins looking through a National Geographic magazine when she comes across the image of tribal people and images of women with exposed breasts. Of course this is a normal image for this geological area, but to the young girl this is unfamiliar and she is slightly embarrassed by the images of women and their exposed breasts. This is a very important concept though because the young girl realizes that she is like these women and will someday too have breasts when she becomes a woman. For the first time she is beginning to recognize her own womanhood and the person she will become. This is concept of becoming a woman at this time seems overwhelming to her, but then she realizes she doesn’t need to worry about that right because the time is not here yet. Another example related to the idea of geography and trying to understand our place in the world and why things are is the poem called “The Moose”. This was actually one of my favorite poems, but it was also quite complex. Bishop does a lot of listing in this poem which sort of made it difficult to follow and understand what was happening. However, what I think I understand about it is these people are traveling on a bus, all going different places, everyone has a lot on their mind, worrying about various things and thinking about what has to be done, when suddenly the bus comes to a stop because a moose is in the road. As they sit there in the bus waiting for the moose to leave everyone stops thinking about anything they were thinking about before and are only focusing on this moose in the middle of the road. For those few minutes there is a sudden calmness and nothing else seems to matter. It is as though this simple creature stopping the bus gave everyone else something to think about, even if only for a second and in a way it seems to the send the message that maybe we all should take a few minutes in our everyday lives and just relax and “smell the roses”. Maybe then we would appreciate our lives more.
There are many reasons why Elizabeth Bishop may have chosen to title her collection of poetry Geography III. To begin to understand this title, we should begin by examining the first poem, “In the Waiting Room.”
ReplyDelete“In the Waiting Room,” the first poem in the collection, is essential to setting up the remainder of the book. The poem starts with a speaker named Elizabeth (who probably represents Bishop) and her perspective as a young girl, providing us with insight as to how she ended up on the path she did. In the poem, the nine-year-old speaker describes finding an old issue of National Geographic in a dentist’s office and how reading it impacted her young thoughts. After seeing pictures of exotic volcanic landscapes and native women with sagging breasts, the speaker is suddenly overcome and decides she doesn’t want to grow up to be someone typical like her aunt or anyone else in the world. In this sense, geography inspires the young Bishop-like girl to seek a greater understanding of the earth, and it fills her with questions. The questions are probably not unlike those asked and answered at the beginning of the collection.
In the beginning of the book, Geography III presents the reader with an excerpt of questions from an old history book, such as: What is the earth? What is Geography? What is the shape of the earth? These are only a few of the questions listed. Together, by showing a curiosity for Geography, the questions show a curiosity for the whole world and all of the things it is made up of. Given that Bishop is an observational poet, this drive to make sense of the earth fuses well with her work.
Of course, geographical terms themselves are a recurring motif in Bishop’s work, appearing in almost every poem. In “Crusoe in England,” a poem devastating in the sincere simplicity of its sadness, the aged Crusoe goes to great lengths to describe the island he once tamed as his home. He describes volcanic eruptions (much like in the first poem) and water spouts and goes on to talking about rediscovering and renaming islands. Of course, the poem makes use of geography through an instance of cruel irony: Crusoe realizes in his age that England is just another island like the one he was trapped on, and his feelings of isolation aren’t cured simply by his location on the globe.
The poem “The Moose” is also loaded with geographical descriptions. In the first three stanzas alone we are treated to numerous descriptions of narrow provinces, red seas, and bays where herrings take long rides. Indeed, it almost seems like the poem is, at times, more interested in describing the setting than it is with the actual events occurring with the moose.
Even in poems that appear at first glance to not depend on their surroundings are tied in to Geography somehow. Take, for instance, the poem entitled “One Art.” While the poem deals primarily with learning how to cope with lose, you’ll notice that Bishop still manages to stick within the theme by mentioning losing cities, continents, and rivers.
Overall, geography plays a big role in virtually all the poems in the collection, either surfacing in the form of physical descriptions or in the spirit of curiosity that drives Bishop’s observations.
Bishop is a very unique poet and has put together a very unique group of poems in "The Geography". It seems like alot or all of the poems have to do with some form of geography. It is quite potent that she can find some any things that compaare so weel with geography. The opening preface is somewhat weird and out there. She opens up talking about what the world is about and how it is perceived from a basic point of view. Now this is telling me that she sees only th good in the earth at the beginning. I think that point in general has to deal alot of why "Night City" was written. her showing us that everything isn't good in the world. "Night City" is about a burne down city that has went through a tragic event. A natural disaster that turned the world she brought in this book upide down. it is almost as if Bishop wants us to think deep about these poems before she pulls a string on us. I love this type of poet. She keeps me interested and caring about things. Another poem that catches my attention is "12 O' Clock News." This poem brings once again the tragedy of life in general instead of the greatness we all think we are provided with. The insecurity that we thinks makes us more special than any other planet. We are hurting ourselves might be another basis for these poems. i think she showed us how basic and simple this world was and then throws in some things that are destroying us as a society in general. Discussing the war and darkness that covers are world.
ReplyDeleteI think that the title of the book has somewhat of a dual meaning. In the more obvious aspect, I think that it is titled Geography III because of the images of nature that many of the poems possess. There are also elements of travel in poems like “Crusoe in England” or “The Moose”. The preface certainly contains questions about geography in a literal sense, as well as about maps and orientation.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think that, to a greater extent, Bishop’s title suggests geography in more of a metaphorical sense. While the poems quite frequently contain explicit facets of geography, they also seem to be dense with themes of self-exploration and discovery. Some of the poems seem to lean more heavily on one interpretation than the other, and some do quite a nice job of combining both.
To me, “12 O’clock News” seems to be a good example of a poem that both meanings. In this piece, the narrator describes eight different items in vivid geological and geographical terms. The poem is presumably meant to read as if the narrator were some sort of reporter illustrating a civilization’s inhabitants and structural features. The notes to the left of each paragraph, however, clarify that what is actually being described are things on a desktop. When the reporter asserts that “here the moon seems to hang motionless in the sky”, it a gooseneck lamp that is observed. Similarly, the “dugout, [or] possibly a shell crater” is really an ashtray.
Bishop utilizes geographical images like these, not just to describe the things on a desk, but seemingly as a sort of self-exploration; her descriptions give insight into how some other being might analyze the way that humans work and live; e.g. when she writes about the typewriter she exclaims, “What endless labor those small, peculiarly shaped terraces represent!” In this line she (or the narrator) represents the keys on the typewriter geographically, but also notes the work that they bring. I thought it was also interesting that she describes the inkbottle as maybe “some powerful and terrifying ‘secret weapon’,” as well as noting that this civilization might see it as “one last hope of rescue”. This is, perhaps, an analysis of the way she feels about her writing, or maybe, the way that many writers utilize pen and ink.
Another poem that uses these devices similarly is “Crusoe in England”. This work is filled with descriptions of clouds, volcanoes, goats, turtles, et cetera. It seems that the use of islands in the poem particularly emphasizes a sort of reflection. First, he describes what it was like for him when he was shipwrecked on an island. He describes the island as “a sort of cloud-dump” smelling of “goat and guano”. He tells of the horrors of the island and of the “nightmares of other islands.” Yet, when he is back in England he remarks his blood was full of islands, “But that archipelago has petered out.” Living in England, he still inhabitants an island, but it’s not the same. Though he regretted the island before, it seems that he misses it. He seems to miss the necessity that it demanded of his knife or his goatskin trousers, which once had so much meaning, and now seem soulless. It seems like it is a reflection for some earlier point in life, which seemed difficult at the time or challenging, but that is missed now that it has been lost. All of the souvenirs from this past, now out of context, seem to have lost their meaning.
As for why the title has III in it, I have no idea.
If the epigraphs in the prefac e of the book were not included I would have a really hard time understanding why Bishop chose to title the book Geography III. But with the inclusion of these short passages it not only gives me a better understanding of the title but of the connection between all of the pieces in the book. The epigraph is from 1884, and because of this I know it was included for a special reason. I would assume that this passage had some sort of special importance to Bishop. She did not choose some fancy elaborate writing about geography, but instead choose a unique section from a book in 1884. Bishop probably really liked this passage and for whatever reason had some strong connection with it and her writing. I believe that she chose Geography III as the title because all of the pieces in this book have to do with traveling of some kind. Whether traveling to a place, or travels she has made, or traveling that takes place in the mind. I also believe that the epigraph is a way for Bishop to explain her style of writing, and what she thinks poetry should be in general, or what poetry is to her. Her writings about a time or event or feeling, is at its simplest form, like “a description of the earth’s surface.” I think Bishop sees her work and poetry like a map, “A picture of the whole, or a part, of the earth’s surface.” Her way of writing is simple, concise, yet fresh and interesting. I also think that the epigraph follows Bishop’s style of writing, and she sees that passage as a form of poetry. The epigraph was a really interesting part of the book, and also one of the most important pieces to it. I also really enjoyed reading “Crusoe in England.” One reason I think I understood and enjoyed it so much is because I have read Robinson Crusoe. At first I did not realize that it was from the perspective of Crusoe. I thought that it was Bishop at first until Friday comes along. This poem relates to the title in that it is all about travel and geography. It is very descriptive about the land and animals. It takes into account many different places on and around the island; much like the epigraph does in Lesson X. I also see the travel in the mind of Crusoe. Much like the book he is struggling mentally and the traveling of his thoughts are what give you a sense of his feeling and situation. Another poem that I enjoyed was “In the Waiting Room.” Again I see the travel or journey in the mind and thoughts of Bishop. It is amazing that she can recount such detail about the environment and her feelings from when she was at such a young age. This is a story about the first time she realized she had a “self.” She was an “I,” and there was more to her being that just her body. She gives a sort of map of her head in this piece, and that is how it connects with the title. The geography is her thoughts, mind and self awareness, and she is just giving us a “A description of the earth’s (her mind’s) surface.” It could also be that her mind and self life in her body like the line from the epigraph describing the earth, “The planet or body on which we live.” Her mind and self live in her body and in this piece Bishop gives us, “. . .the shape of the earth (mind and self),” and “Of what is the Earth’s surface (mind and self) composed?” It is clear that the epigraph holds a lot of meaning and connection to Bishop’s writing and her thoughts and self in general.
ReplyDelete“The Moose” by Elizabeth Bishop is a classic example of description vs. exposition. Description is so deeply entwined in the poem that I almost didn't catch the main plot, the bus ride. The line “a bus journeys west” is hidden within five stanzas of mere description. Instead of writing “the bus drove past a sea and some farmhouses” Bishop eloquently writes, “home of the long tides / where the bay leaves the sea / twice a day and takes / the herrings long rides... / down rows of sugar maples, / past clapboard farmhouses...” Her successful application of description continues throughout the entire poem. An amateur writer might say “the moon was shining brightly on the trees” while Bishop describes the scene as “hairy, scratchy, splintery; / moonlight and mist / caught in them like lamb's wool / on bushes in a pasture.” In the last stanza, Bishop even adds another sense to the poem, scent... “then there's a dim / smell of moose, an acrid / smell of gasoline.” These ending lines leave the reader almost smelling the bus ride. At times, too much description can be overbearing, but I think it adds beauty to “The Moose.”
ReplyDeleteBishop's “Crusoe in England” has a dramatic impact on the reader. The language makes the reader feel as if they are on the island themselves. Bishop captures the agony, boredom, and near insanity that Crusoe must have felt in his stranded days. I believe Bishop is able to do so not by following standard poetry rules, but by breaking them.
Poetic pieces can easily seem sloppy and half-hearted when words or phrases are used repetitively. The reader might assume that the author could not think of a fresh way to articulate their words, or that the author was just purely lazy. However, in special cases, repetition can do justice to a poem. Bishop found a way to make repetition work in her favor. In fact, I didn't notice just how many words Bishop repeated until I looked for it. This suggests that she was successful in making the repetition subtle and not overbearing. It did not take away from the poem, but rather added to it. For example, in the third stanza, the words giant, rollers, glittering, and closing are used two or three times. Instead of sounding redundant, the repetition of these words give the reader a sense of hastiness or anxiety. In stanza 7, Bishop describes what Crusoe must have seen, “The island had one kind of everything: / one tree snail, a bright violet-blue / with a thin shell, crept over everything, / over the one variety of tree... / you'd swear that they were bed of irises. / There was one kind of berry, a dark red.” Crusoe saw the same objects day after day after day, and Bishop reveals the monotony through the repetition of words. Crusoe recites to his “iris-beds” in stanza 9 simply because there is nothing else interesting on the island. He tries to end the cycle of monotony by dyeing one of the many billy-goats red with the berries in stanza 11 “just to see something a little different.” The constant repetition in “Crusoe in England” reveals the gradual loss of sanity and increased anxiety in Crusoe. The last stanza of the poem does not contain much repetition, suggesting that Crusoe gains some sanity back, yet sadly, he's still bored.
Elizabeth Bishop effectively uses The Parthian Shot in "Five Flights Up." The ending cuts off without a clear translation, explanation, or evaluation of the event that took place. Bishop paints a simple scene with a bird, a dog, and his owner only to leave the reader unsatisfied as to what actually happened at the end. It starts with two words – still dark – presenting a sense of mystery and vagueness. There is questioning and inquiring from the dog and the bird. Bishop personifies both the dog and the bird, and although they do not interact with one another, they are obviously present in the scene that takes place. The bird yawns and sits; the dog bounces and doesn’t sense shame. Bishop asks in the poem, “What has he done?” The speaker doesn’t know, the reader doesn’t know, and the poem does not point itself to one answer. I found myself asking: What does that mean? What happened? Why would he be ashamed? The bird and the dog in the poem “know everything is answered, / all taken care of, / no need to ask again.” However, the reader isn’t informed of the answers. Not only does the reader not know exactly what happened, but Bishop also chose to end the poem with a comment in parentheses. “Yesterday brought to today so lightly! / (A yesterday I find almost impossible to lift)” The parentheses give the end of the reader suspended with no answers to the happenings in the poem. This is also the first mention of “yesterday.” What does yesterday have to do with anything? The last line most certainly keeps the poem lingering in my mind, proving that this poem successfully fits The Parthian Shot.
ReplyDelete"In the Waiting Room" is an example of The Welcome Mat. The initial mention of a waiting room drives me to picture an anxious father waiting the arrival of his new son or daughter. In this poem, the reader is inside a dentist’s office waiting room. The first few lines are not that captivating, either. They do not catch my attention, nor do they convince me that this will be a poem I would want to read. “I sat and waited for her / in the dentist’s waiting room. / It got dark / early,” really does not seem interesting. The beginning states the obvious, nothing to detailed, descriptive, or exciting. The simplicity of the scene, I suppose, could be intriguing. I just don’t see the appeal. It isn’t until much later in the poem that I am drawn in to a more complex scenario. Bishop writes, “I was my foolish aunt, / I – we – were falling, falling.” Suddenly, I am confused. I thought we were in a waiting room, and now “falling off the round, turning world.” The beginning, though, does not give me a sense of anticipation of this strange situation, though maybe that’s the creative rite of passage for which Bishop was aiming. The Welcome Mat sounds more like the use of an attention-getter right at the beginning of the poem which I don’t think is present in "In the Waiting Room."
I think that she named the book Geography because throughout the book she is relating different ideas and comparing them to geological manifestations. An example is in the first poem when she mentions the volcano she saw in National Geographic, while she was waiting. In the epigraphy geography was described as a description off the earth’s surface. Volcanoes sprinkle the earth and are categorized as being on many different countries. The way she uses the volcano to describe what she was feeling while waiting is beautiful. She talks about the volcano about to spill over, and I feel that is what she was feeling while she was waiting in the waiting room. This quiet, perfectly still, buildup and then immediately it explodes and spews all over because she can not take the concept of waiting anymore. In the poem Night City, she uses geography to its utmost potential. In almost every stanza there is something that relates to the definition of what geography is. There are mentions of lakes, rivers, and cities covering the earth and taking up the sky. This is one of my favorite poems of hers. I love how she uses this poem to describe how she is feeling about the earth becoming overpopulated. “The conflagration/ fights for air/ in a dread vacuum. / The sky is dead. “That is an absolutely beautiful stanza, in which she is making the argument that the overpopulation in our cities is destroying our once beautiful sky. A sky that had life flowing through it in the form of birds, insects, and leaves. The geography can be compared to the sky and to the city taking up land and instead of just destroying the land it was on it reached up and managed to kill the sky. The description of the earth’s surface can be either beautiful or horrible depending on how u write it. I think that Elizabeth bishop wrote about it in a truly beautiful way. I loved how she would use the earth’s surface throughout her poems and in metaphors that relate it to what she was trying to talk about. I think it can also be seen that she is a person who is truly in love with the world. Her true love of the earth can be seen in the poem “Poem” It’s a poem in which she is describing a little painting. The most powerful line in the poem and even in the whole entire book is the last line in which she states “the yet-to-be-dismantled elms.” The line is important because she is making it a hyphenated word. I feel that this is very important because instead of just spacing them out and making them all individual words, she combines them and makes them into one word. I think she does this as a way of showing that the destruction of trees has come so far that it has turned into a word. I really love this line, there is something about it, the sadness, the beautifulness, the horrificness, the mysteriousness, all combined into one word. Truly exemplifies what poetry is, the ability to charge one word with the power to evoke an emotion comparable to a thousand words.
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure I entirely understand the concept of the book or what these poems represent as a whole but here it goes. What I gathered from reading these poems is that in some way Elizabeth Bishop is answering the questions posed in “First Lessons in Geography” in a more personal or experienced manner which contrasts the answers given in the epigraphs. The answers in the preface are all very logical and general answers that are more or less definitions. For example “What is the earth?” yes, it is the planet on which we live, but to Elizabeth Bishop that isn’t an acceptable answer. She wants to experience the earth and answer this question by describing her surroundings because it is more than just the place in which we live it is our entire existence that we live each day and I believe that is what Elizabeth Bishop is trying to get across in this collection of poetry.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “The Moose”, Bishop chronicles what she sees as she is travelling on a bus. At first I thought “Ok, Geography III; bus trip across cross country; I get the connection” but really the connection is her descriptions of the people and places she sees. One of the questions in the preface is “Of what is the Earth’s surface composed?” Rather than just land and water Bishop sees that the earth’s composition is the people and animals and nature that make up our surroundings. We also see this in the poem “12 O’Clock News.” In each stanza Bishop describes a geographical structure; a plain; a landslide; a mysterious black structure; a shell crater, yet these things are not what the poem is about. It is about the poverty stricken people that were affected by the landslide, the ancients who erected the “mysterious black structure” and the soldiers who died using the crater for protection. To Elizabeth Bishop these people are the Geography they are what make up the world; not merely land and water but these things combined with people and interactions of everyday life both past and present.
I believe Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “In the Waiting Room” is a great example of “Lines” and the use of enjambment. Almost every other line could be used as an example of good enjambment. My favorite is:
I wasn’t at all surprised;
even then I knew she was
a foolish, timid woman.
This comes right after her aunt yells from inside the office, and without reading the third line, the first two take on a whole new meaning. I thought she meant her aunt was surprised that she had screamed, when really she is speaking about her aunt being timid and foolish. There are many other examples of good line management in this poem, to many to list.
As much as I liked the poem “12 O’Clock News” I think it violated some of the Poetry Revision Checklist. There were two things I thought could have been better, first is economy. I realize that the poem is trying to imitate a news report but we didn’t need the entire report. I believe in the very first line you can omit “As you all know…” It doesn’t bring anything to the poem. Also in the second to last stanza Bishop starts out “From our superior advantage point…”; to me this just seemed pointless or maybe too much like a news report. Which brings me to her next downfall which is Description vs. Exposition. Again, I get the fact it is a news broadcast, but when you say the soil is of poor quality and then describe what you mean by poor quality soil' I feel like that is too much, we understand what poor soil is. (Now as I’m re-reading this some of my examples aren’t as strong as I thought) But still, I felt when reading this poem I got too much news report and not enough poetry.
Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “The Night City” is a good example of “The Welcome Mat” from the Poetry Revision Checklist. The very first line: “No foot could endure it,/shoes are too thin” gives the reader a sense of intensity; they are naturally wondering what kind of place it is that Bishop is describing where shoes would not protect feet. Perhaps they think of images of hell already. The next line in the stanza solidifies their feeling of chaos and destruction: “Broken glass, broken bottles,/heaps of them burn”. By this time, at the end of the first stanza of “The Night City”, the reader has gotten the sense that the rest of the poem is not going to describe a bustling city glittering with lights and noise—as one would expect a city to be like at night. Instead, the reader sees a powerful fire, burning through glass bottles and shoes. Bishop’s masterful use of objects as details in the opening (the shoes and the glass bottles) makes her poem more personal and realistic right from the start. The reader is immediately sucked into this world of fire and acid—though she never says the word “fire” until the second stanza. The reader forms expectations after the first stanza: that Bishop will go on to describe the destruction of this city, that they might find out where this city is, what kind of creatures live there, and what kind of metaphor Bishop is trying to set up. Secondly, Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “In the Waiting Room” could be more “Economical” according to the Poetry Revision Checklist. In this poem, Bishop often uses weak verbs such as “went”, “was”, and “came”. Although she might be trying to mimic childhood in her choice of verbs, the poem sounded too wordy at the beginning. This poem was also full of some of the “unnecessary words” from the Checklist (“while”, “but”, and “then”). Again, that may be her way of simulating childhood—since she used phrases such as “(I could read)”, which indicate that she was young still. However, when she goes on to think in depth about the future after hearing her aunt cry out in pain, the content of her poem moves away from childhood while her wording kept its immaturity. This makes the poem a bit unbelievable because Bishop’s speaker is dealing with questions of identity and purpose (which are the qualities of her personality that make her the “seeker” instead of the “gentlewoman”, as the article would put it), which are concepts that children at seven years old would never think of. This clash of concepts and wording makes “In the Waiting Room” implausible and not very economical. Also, the ending of the poem was abrupt and completely random. Perhaps Bishop was trying to create a sense of incompletion (as she does in other poems), by snapping the speaker out of her spiral of self-reflection and fear of the future and throwing her once more into the cold, slushy reality of Worcester, Massachusetts. In my opinion, that gesture brought the poem back into the realm of plausibility.
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