The Fish: The poem is set in free verse. There are short lines with enjambment present, giving the impression of Bishop simply spilling her thoughts out onto the page, such as when Bishop remarks ‘I caught a tremendous fish/ and held him beside the boat/ half out of water, with my hook/ fast in a corner of his mouth’; sentences run for a number of lines, presenting the poet as one who is not writing these lines on a page but speaking them out loud, almost as if she were present at the scene and is speaking as she catches... (More)

Write an essay on the appeal of Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry

Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry is appealing for a variety of reasons. Her poetry is intertwined with her life, a depressing but interesting one that saw a troubled childhood, many countries and many awards for her poetry. Her celebrations of the ordinary are an unusual yet original quality, while her poetry has a unique style, with a fine combination of vivid imagery and concrete intense language. In addition to this her poetry lacks the monotony that often can be the detriment of a poet’s work; her poems have detailed descriptions of both... (More)

Vivid, detailed descriptions of the exotic and familiar

The Armadillo: The balloons, while fiery, are familiar; they are objects of the ordinary, known by all audiences and present in all facets of life, such as times of celebration. Bishop enforces their ordinariness by revealing that their appearance is not a surprise; as she tells us, ‘This is the time of year’ when they appear. However the exotic is also presented to the reader, as we hear of when ‘Once up against the sky it’s hard/ to tell them from the stars -/ planets, that is – the tinted ones:/ Venus... (More)

First Death in Nova Scotia: In First Death in Nova Scotia we meet many detailed images of many sorts, from the domestic ‘marble table’ to a ‘frozen lake’, and it may be seen that such a contrast of images represents that Bishop is at an age where she cannot yet accept death as a part of her life. As a result death is not presented as inevitable and normal in life, but rather at odds with that which Bishop is used to; this is seen elsewhere when Bishop talks about how her cousin bears resemblance to how she always knew... (More)