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Elizabeth Bishop - Coggle Diagram

- - - - ‘Like medals with their ribbons/ frayed and wavering’
      - The comparison of the hocks in the fish jew to medals shows that Bishop sees these hooks as badges of honour and a record of the fish's achievement.
    - - 'He didn't fight./ He hadn't fought at all.’
      - These short staccato lines effectively convey the fish's resignation to his fate. He has absolutely no fight left in him.
    - - ‘until everything/ was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!’
      - The word 'rainbow is repeated in a euphoric way to illustrate the speaker's moment of epiphany in this poem.
- - - - 'exile'
      - This word conveys the prodigal son's sense of displacement and loneliness.
      - 'home'
      - In Bishop's poems, the word 'home' is often used to connote a sense of belonging and contentment rather than an actual house.
    - - 'The Prodigal’
      - This poem is a re telling of the 'Parable of the Prodigal Son'. Bishop related to it both because of her own alcoholism and the addiction that ran in her family.
      - 'to shut the cows and horses in the barn...safe and companionable as in the Ark.'
      - This is a reference to Noah's Ark and suggests safety and escape.
- - - - ‘gesturing like noble pantomimists, robed in pink’
      - This simile helps us to picture gently swaying trees covered in pink blossom.
    - - ‘mile-long, shiny, tearstains’
      - The comparison of rivers and waterfalls to tearstains tells us that Bishop is no longer happy in Brazil, as well as forming a picture of a channel of water
    - - ‘the pressure of so many clouds on the mountaintops/ makes them spill over the sides in soft slow-motion/ turning to waterfalls under our very eyes.'
      - The sibilance here indicates how overwhelmed the speaker is feeling by this lush tropical landscape and how oppressive all this water is to her.
    - - 'clogs/ carelessly clacking'
      - Bishop combines alliteration with onomatopoeia here so that we can hear the sound the clogs make on the floor.
    - - ‘Think of the long trip home.’
      - This is something everyone thinks of at least once when they are far from home, but it also signifies how sometimes we end up very far from 'home' in a metaphorical sense, and it is scary to consider how long it will take to get back 'home'.
    - - 'tearstains'
      - This word makes us think of sadness and despair - you must cry a lot of tears to make a stain.
      - 'home'
      - In Bishop's poems, the word 'home' is often used to connote a sense of belonging and contentment rather than an actual house.
    - - 'Is it right to be watching strangers in a play/ in this strangest of theatres?’
      - Here, Bishop questions whether travel is ethical, and forces us to consider the social and cultural repercussions of travel.
    - - 'the mountains look like the hulls of capsized ships, / slime-hung and barnacled.’
      - It is quite unusual to compare mountain peaks in the sky with the hulls of shipwrecks deep in the water, but it is strangely effective.
    - - 'Continent, city, country, society:/ the choice is never wide and never free. And here, or there... No. Should we have stayed at home, /wherever that may be?’
      - Here, Bishop contemplates the idea that complete freedom is an illusion and admits that it is often a desire to belong, to be 'at home' which, paradoxically, informs our desire for travel.
- - - - 'It was to be, says the Marvel Stove’
      - The child thinks the stove, the warm centre of the house, is all-seeing and all-knowing. as this example of what it 'says' shows.
    - - 'tears'
      - The word 'tears' with its connotations of grief cause this poem to be tinged with sadness - there are tears to be found everywhere, in the teacup, on the kettle, as raindrops and in the child's drawing.
    - - ‘house 'grandmother’ ‘tears’ 'stove 'almanac 'child’
      - These six words are all repeated throughout 'Sestina', and each word has an impact on the poem, making us think of home, shelter, age, love, sadness, loss, warmth, the fact we have no control over the future, innocence, and vulnerability. This is a very expert use of repetition.
    - - ‘Time to plant tears, says the almanac.'
      - This line is italicised because it explains the sadness in the poem. The grandmother has read that the tears she is planting now will, like seeds, grow into much greater sorrows, and this fills her with anguish and apprehension for the future. The planting of the tears could also represent Bishop's childhood planting the seed of creativity in her, which would later grow.
- - - - ‘He was all white, like a doll that hadn't been painted yet.’
      - This simile helps us to picture the child's lace, as white as that of an unpainted China doll, and reminds us of the living child's innocence.
    - - ‘white, frozen lake’
      - The comparison of the marble table to a frozen lake enables us to picture a round white table and reveals that the child thinks the loon is still alive, swimming on the lake.
    - - 'Arthur's coffin was/ a little frosted cake'
      - This description is shocking as a frosted cake is associated with celebratory events (weddings, Christmas, etc.), and a child's death is so far removed from these. It is also extremely effective, as it is visually accurate and highlights the young Bishop's lack of understanding of what is taking place.
- - - - ‘family filling station'
      - This emphasises that this is a small, family-run filling station. The sing-song alliteration adds a mocking tone to this point.
    - - ‘several quick and saucy/ and greasy sons assist him'
      - Sibilance is used here to suggest oiliness and greasiness in a very effective way.
      - ‘ESSO-so-so-so'
      - in this example the sibilance sounds like a gentle whisper, suggesting the person who arranged the oil cans in this careful way is also gentle.
    - - 'Somebody loves us all.’
      - This is a very brief, but also very profound statement; that every single person is loved.
    - - ‘Why the extraneous plant?'
      - When Bishop starts asking questions in this poem, it is because they force her to reconsider her initial impression of the family that runs the filling station. This helps to show how wrong it is to judge a book by its cover.