The Prodigal

Description

Summary of the poetic techniques and themes in Elizabeth Bishop's "The Prodigal".
Stephanie Tormey
Mind Map by Stephanie Tormey, updated more than 1 year ago
Stephanie Tormey
Created by Stephanie Tormey over 7 years ago
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Resource summary

The Prodigal
  1. Alliteration
    1. "Light-lashed"
      1. "faint forked"
      2. personification
        1. "self-righteous"
          1. "the first star came to warn"
          2. biblical allusion
            1. "The Prodigal"
              1. "safe and companionable as in the Ark"
                1. "a pacing aureole"
                2. sensuous imagery
                  1. "plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dung"
                    1. "the sunrise glazed the barnyard mud with red: the burning puddles seemed to reassure"
                      1. "a slimy board"
                        1. "The brown enormous odor"
                        2. onomatopoeia
                          1. "overhanging clouds of hay"
                          2. theme
                            1. redemption
                              1. the strength of the human spirit
                              2. tone
                                1. bleak &depressing in 1st stanza
                                  1. becomes cautiously optimistic in the 2nd stanza
                                    1. begins to change at the word "But"
                                    2. metaphor
                                      1. The Prodigal is a metaphor for an alcoholic, specifically the poet herself.
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