How Does Elizabeth Bishop Use Of Language In Poetry

Construct a close reading of this poem that demonstrates your awareness of the poet’s body of work.

The poem suddenly becomes much darker in the last stanza and a Billy Collins explains how teachers, students or general readers of poetry ‘torture’ a poem by being what he believes is cruelly analytical. He says, “all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it”. Here, the poem is being personified yet again and this brings about an almost human connection between the reader and the poem. This use of personification is effective as it makes the

Small details are instrumental in seeing the bigger picture. This is apparent when reading “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop. Most often the reader experiences visual imagery in poetry. In this poem the reader encounters visual, auditory, and sensory imagery. “The Fish” is filled with minute details that paint a picture for the reader. With each new element that is introduced, it becomes easier to visualize the fish. The speaker is able to show the reader the beauty as well as the ugliness of this creature with her vivid imagery. The imagery used is so distinct that the reader can envisage being the fisherman and catching this fish. Another important element involved in this poem is irony.

In his final moment of clarity before his transformation, the narrator realizes, “I could have risen; I believe they would have embraced me. Instead, I behaved like an animal” (Torres 118). By using the metaphor of the animal, Torres finally reveals that the animal represents himself. He became a caricature of his father, encapsulating all of his greatest flaws -- his anger, his violence, his lack of vulnerability -- into the symbolism of the animal. As his family tries to put the narrator together again, he fights against them. He describes, “I chased them down into that love and challenged it -- you morons, you sick fucks, I bet you liked reading it, I bet it excited you” (Torres 118). The strong language demonstrates how while the narrator has grown older, he is still the immature child who followed his father’s every move. His inability to process their love shows how he has morphed into an animal, and the metaphor takes over, rearing its head and lashing out at those who love

As the story continues, we begin see and smell the world through Grenouille and somewhat adapt to his unnatural personality. Whatever attachment the reader has with Grenouille at this point is suddenly crippled when he commits his first murder. Although a point of view is given through the victim’s senses as well as Grenouille’s, there is a sudden shock to the discovery his deadly intentions, which up until now no one, not even himself, thought he was capable of: “he did not look at her, did not see her delicate, freckled face, her red lips, her large sparkling green eyes, keeping his eyes closed tight as he strangled her, for he had only one concern—not to lose the least trace of her scent” (42, Ch. 8). By painting a vivid picture of a beautiful innocent girl that Grenouille could not see (as he was closing his eyes), the narrator leaves readers with only feelings of disgust towards Grenouille and his selfish, cold-blooded thirst for scent. This situation could only been sufficiently told through the narrative mode used, and now readers begin to lose all sympathy towards

Prompt: Write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the poem's organization, diction, and figurative language prepare the reader for the speaker's concluding response.

The narrator questions at the end of the poem “how could Arthur go?” (50). Even though she is confused by death, she is still afraid of it. Bishop’s poem is unique in a sense that it is written through the point of view of a small child. Furthermore, the child is experiencing a life changing and painful concept for the first time. The child’s innocence is shown by her response to death. By finding distractions through comparisons, word choices, and even a stuffed loon in response to the inability to comprehend the painful concept of death is the theme Bishop was trying to portray. She also touches on the idea that trying to comprehend the finality of death, takes a toll on some

Unlike other forms of literature, poetry can be so complex that everyone who reads it may see something different. Two poets who are world renowned for their ability to transform reader’s perceptions with the mere use of words, are TS Eliot and Walt Whitman. “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” by TS Eliot, tells the story of a man who is in love and contemplating confessing his emotions, but his debilitating fear of rejection stops him from going through with it. This poem skews the reader’s expectations of a love song and takes a critical perspective of love while showing all the damaging emotions that come with it. “Song of myself”, by Walt Whitman provokes a different emotion, one of joy and self-discovery. This poem focuses more on the soul and how it relates to the body. “Song of myself” and “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” both explore the common theme of how the different perceptions of the soul and body can affect the way the speaker views themselves, others, and the world around them.

Elizabeth Bishop’s writings were influenced by the Post War era in which she lived. Post War America was a period directly after the end of World War II. A time when America was going through great economic expansions. This era focused on inventive and industrial expansion which greatly helped improve Middle America. Politically, socially and economically the Post War era changed the lives of many Americans.

Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.

The imagery itself is powerful, but when paired with the images created by the Duke’s tone, the poem gains even more

Poems are often designed to express deep feelings and sometimes it’s about the author’s life or environment. In this essay I will be comparing the authors, who used imagery to foreshadow their way of life and future occurring events. In Anne Sexton, The Starry Night, and in Jane Flanders, Van Gogh’s Bed, both poems used many poetic elements. Such as simile, repetition and mood. Also given the background of the authors, it’s no wonder that the mood of the poem foreshadows what will happen.

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop is a villanelle in which the narrator talks of losing things. Her attitude of losing things in lines 16-19 is different from her attitude in lines 1-15. As the poem continues, the narrator’s losses change from material items to the truly painful loss of a beloved person. Bishop uses verse form and language throughout the poem which contribute to the reader’s understanding of the narrator’s different attitudes throughout the poem.

The most prominent quality of Elizabeth Bishop’s, “One Art,” remains the concise organization and rhyme scheme of the poem, which amazingly keeps the audience informed at all times what the theme. Her choice of a villanelle constantly reminds the audience that “the art of losing” always seem easy until one loses something so much more than an inanimate object and at the point, it does become a “disaster.” Written in 1976, the poem is very modern and uses an impeccable rhyme scheme, diction, and imagery to convey the hints of misery and frantic the speaker feels.

Several poems in the anthology explore the intensity of human emotion. Explore this theme, referring to these three poems in detail and by referencing at least three other poems from your wider reading.’