poetic devices and the magic of elizabeth bishop2
TRANSCRIPT
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.
“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 engine
to 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