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Elizabeth Bishop And Her Poem "filling Station" Essay

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Elizabeth Bishop and Her Poem "Filling Station"

Elizabeth Bishop's skill as a poet can be clearly seen in the thought- provoking poem entitled Filling Station. She paints the different language levels of poetry with the skill of an artist-- she seems to have an eye for detail as she contrasts the dark and dim reference of a filling station to a more homey, pleasant atmosphere. Bishop aptly arranges her words and expressions through the language devices of voice and metaphor.
In Filling Station, Bishop uses tone of voice brilliantly, through the use of phonetics, to create the poem's initial atmosphere. The opening seems to be offering a straightforward description of the filling station: "Oh, …show more content…

Bishop seems to be paying special attention to these words as the words themselves have double meaning.
The poet does not want the reader to forget that they are in the harsh conditions of the filling station, hence the jarring [k] sound, yet the meaning of the words suggest a kind, comfortable atmosphere.
Bishop's attention to the sense of sound throughout the poem aids with the metaphoric meaning of the poem as a whole. At a very simplistic level, the poem begins with the setting of a filthy gas station, or perhaps somewhere else where conditions are not very clean, like a ghetto for example. Combining the oily nature (ie- "oil-soaked" and "oil-permeated")and the depressing concretness
(ie- "cement porch" and "grease-impregnated wickerwork") the reader prepares for a very somber and even corrupt story-line. Oil and concrete are usually associated with the spoiling of the natural, wholesome environment. The reader is then introduced to the type of character thought to inhabit an environment of this nature: a "Father wears a dirty,/ oil-soaked monkey suit" and "greasy sons assist him". At this point Bishop shifts the metaphoric meaning of the poem with the introduction of the word "comfy". Although the dog is "dirty" or

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