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Bishop - Coggle Diagram
Bishop
Sestina
Depicts a quiet domestic scene between a grandmother and her granddaughter, where everyday objects and routines mask unspoken grief
'failing light'
'laughing and talking to hide her tears'
'foretold by the almanac, but only known to a grandmother'
'Birdlike, the almanac hovers'
'her teacup full of dark brown tears'
'rigid house and a winding pathway'
'man with buttons like tears'
'Time to plant tears, says the almanac'
Mirrors fading hope/vitality
Emotional repression
The child cannot comprehend loss
Feels the sadness is almost fated
Merges literal & figurative
Tragedy that is waiting to descend upon the child
The child cannot escape the dawning awareness of sorrow
Emotionally complex confusion
Meditation on how humans endure loss
Rigid & difficult structure of sestina is reminiscent of a nursery rhyme in it's repetition
Rhythmic use of alliteration
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The Fish
Celebrations of the shared ability of the poet & the fish to triumph over adversity
Seeing the world differently through attentive perception
Reflects Bishop's struggles
Emotional release
'I caught a tremendous fish'
'He didn't fight. He hadn't fought at all'
'battered and venerable and homely'
'like full-blown roses stained and lost through age'
'far larger than mine but shallower'
'They shifted a little, but not to return my stare'
'victory filled up the little rented boat, from the pool of bilge where oil had spread a rainbow'
'until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And I let the fish go'
A poem of observation
Personification
Imagery of restraint
Juxtaposition
Empathy that will deepen throughout the poem
Bishop projects emotion onto the fish
Empathy rooted in a shared weariness
Emotional evolution of Bishop
Adjectives move from physical to moral to aesthetic
Bishop's attentive gaze - repetition 'wallpaper'
Vivid verbal painting of the fish
Bishop transforms ugliness into a sign of endurance
Lingers on the less pleasant aspects of the fish
Use of colour enhances the descriptive qualities
Vivid, tactile imagery
Anatomical imagery
Detached curiosity transforms into aesthetic appreciation
Shifts between scientific observation & tender imagination
Tone of wonder tinged with melancholy
Empathy deepens precisely because of the unbridgeable distance
Tone shifts from curiosity to reverence
Victory as tangible
Moment of epiphany
Emotional release
Only at the end does she permit herself a moment of direct emotional expression
Exhalation after revelation
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Filling Station
Bishop stops at a filling station, beings in a judgemental tone, she goes on to describe it in a light-hearted manner, reinforces the impression of
'Oh, but it is dirty!'
'Do they live in the station?'
'the only note of colour - of certain colour'
'Somebody' x3
'esso-so-so-so'
'Somebody loves us all'
Exclamatory sentence
Motifs of oil & masculinity
Mixture of industrial & domestic imagery
Women are meaningfully absent
Colloquial language
Conversational language
Parenthetical aside
Use of question emphasises her incredulousness
Question marks a shift
Triadic repetition
Recognition of unseen love
Human affection persisting amid ugliness
Revelation & benediction
Concise & uplifting
Encapsulates the insight that Bishop has gained
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The Prodigal
Parable from the Gospel of St Luke
Bishop identifies with the prodigal son from the Bible
Prodigal's drinking problems
Bishop dramatises the time before he returns home
'The brown enormous odour he lived by was too close, with it's breathing and thick hair, for him to judge'
'self-righteous'
'he leaned to scratch her head'
'(he hid the pints behind a two-by-four)'
'the sunrise glazed the barnyard muck with red; the burning puddles seemed to reassure'
'And then he thought he almost might endure his exile yet another year or more'
'the first star came to warn'
'safe and companiable as in the Ark'
'The lantern - like the sun, going away'
'uncertain staggering flight'
'But it took him a long time finally to make his mind up to go home'
Intertextuality
Religious innuendos
Poem opens in medias res
So degraded he cannot see how far he has fallen
Desperate for companionship
Sunrise represents new hope & renewal
Bitterness from the prodigal
Act of concealment reveals habit & shame
He does not repent but instead endures - captures psychology of addiction
Array of senses in 2nd stanza
2nd negates the ending of the start with 'But...'
Star, usually a sign of hope, seems ominous coming to warn
Farmer represents steadiness, purpose & companionship - everything Prodigal lacks
Lack of empathy
Biblical salvation
Moment of truth arrives when he's aware of the bats flight - terrifies him because it resembles himself stumbling through life
The poem concludes on a semi-positive note
Redemption in this poem is not a moment of divine revelation but a human decision
Strong autobiographical element to this poem
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Armadillo
Depicts a vivid scene of lanterns affecting both nature & the observer
Explores themes of vulnerability & fragility of existence
'rising toward a saint'
'flush and fill with light'
'like hearts'
'suddenly turning dangerous'
'egg of fire'
'a handful of intangible ash'
The act of climbing the mountain gives us a sense of devotion & journey, both literal & metaphorical
Balloons are linked to religious devotion
Fragility & ephemeral beauty
Ascending with purpose
Illustrates how in calm conditions the human spectacle seems benign
Paradox
Beauty
Destruction
Delicate balance of nature
Tradition
Death
Delicacy of the human condition
Vulnerability
Fragility of existence
Overarching
Attentive gaze
Painterly eye
Bishop's similes link natural forms across realms
Seeing the world differently through attentive perception
Bishop's curious mind probes beneath the surface of a scene
Typical of Bishop's style to give an account of what is happening, observing rather than participating