POETIC DEVICES AND THE MAGIC OF ELIZABETH BISHOP

BY DE V

ON

FI E

L D

ELIZABETH BISHOP

1911 –1979

CHARACTERISTICS OF BISHOPS WORK

• great attention to detail

• interest in nature

• Empathy for creatures

• surprising imagery

SIMILE

A comparison of two subjects using like or as.

She’s as sweet as candy. John sings like a flute. Laura is as light as a feather. Don is as slow as molasses in January.

METAPHOR

• A comparison or analogy stated in such a way as to imply that one object is another one, figuratively speaking.

“She was a lone reed blowing in the wind.” “She’s a brick house” “He is a gentle giant.”

ANTHROPOMORPHISM

Attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena.

“One seal particularly I have seen here evening after evening. He was curious about me. He was interested in music; like me a believer in total immersion, so I used to sing him Baptist hymns.” – At the Fish Houses

Watership Down novel with rabbit heroes

REPETITION

Words or phrases that appear more than once for added emphasis, effect, or emotion

“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.” –Robert Frost

THE FISH

Initial Reactions?

Can you pick out any poetic devices that Bishop used?

Does any line in the power stand out to you?

“Here and there his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper”

Old Caribbean Jew Fish Peeling Brown Wallpaper

“I thought of the course white flesh

Packed in like feathers…and the pink swim-bladder

like a big peony.”

“I looked into his big eyes

which were far larger than mine

but shallower, and yellowed,

the irises backed and packed

with tarnished tinfoil

seen through the lenses

of old scratched isinglass.”

“He hung a grunting weight,battered and venerableand homely.”

“Like medals with their ribbonsfrayed and wavering,a five-haired beard of wisdomtrailing from his aching jaw.”

-”It was more like the tippingof an object toward the light.I admired his sullen face,the mechanism of his jaw…

I stared and staredand victory filled up

the little rented boat,from the pool of bilge

where oil had spread a rainbow

around the rusted engineto the bailer rusted

orange,the sun-cracked thwarts,

the oarlocks on their strings,

the gunnels--until everything

was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!

And I let the fish go.

MATCH THAT FIGURE OF SPEECH

1. The sea is …

2. As softly as …

3. On stumps and dead trees the charring…

4. For two weeks or more…

5. The beach…

A. Falling stars come to their ends at a point in the sky.

B. The trees hesitated; the little leaves waited…

C. ..hisses like fat

D. “all a case of knives”

F. Is like black velvet.

Thank you!

Wallpaper: http://www.tenement.org/slideshows/collections_2.html

Caribbean Jew Fish : http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/marine-life-ecosystems/279631-dangerous-predators-personal-space-divers.html

Anatomy of a Fish: http://vet.osu.edu/assets/courses/vm608/anatomy/anatomy.html

B/W Fish: http://www.glossop-sea-angling club.co.uk/pages/swimbladderproblemspage.html

Peony: http://pattihaskins.wordpress.com/category/plant-life/

Fish Eye: http://www.oceanwideimages.com/search.asp?s=fish+eyes

Tin Foil: http://www.pixmac.com/picture/tinfoil/000010091711

Hooked Fish: http://www.ticotimes.net/fishingforum/forum.cfm?icat=3

Dictionary.com

Elizabeth Bishop: http://tintin1.livejournal.com

Silhouette Fish: http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/resources/index.php?search=FREE%20SILHOUETTES&page=11

Fisherman: http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum/general-photos/112381-wade-fisherman-silhouette.html

Microscope: http://showboatentertainment.com/

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-2/

http://chawedrosin.wordpress.com/2008/12/24/stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-by-robert-frost/

http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=655925

Feather: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/981696

Seal: http://wattsmith.wordpress.com/

Rabbit: http://www.paulfidler.com/books/short_list.htm

Bishop, Elizabeth. The Complete Poems. Ed. Farrar, Staus and Giroux. New York, New York.

Works Cited