Breakdown of the Poem

The Title

A metaphor for her life
37th Birthday
Birthday's; time for reflection
The Bight; a bay
Location; Key West, Florida

Background to the Poem

Extremely sensual poem
Vocabulary of; Bay and fishing
The Bay is a metaphor for the mess in her life
Personal poem; yet there is no first person pronoun used
The poem shows Bishop's state of mind
The poem is realistic
Imagism; one image after another, like a cinema reel- poem is extremely visual, almost photographic

Stanza One

Simile
"Absorbing" ; an unusual quaility of water, both the Bight and her are taking in everything
In line 8, she makes reference to a 19th Century poet whom had a major influence on her poetry which can be clearly seen in this one. His poetry revolved around the idea that there was a connection between everything (symbolism)
Lines 7,8,9 & 11: mention one of the senses, sight, smell, hear & touch
"M" repition gives a rythmetical quality to the poem
Line 12: is she speaking about life? is life/mankind unnecessarily difficult/challenging?
Line 14; lack of achievements, her life? It is a bleek outlook on both the Bight and her life

Stanza Two
- Simile
- Simile
- The poet is looking around & she's dredging up memories- dredger in the bay is a metaphor
- Lines 20 -24 are disperate imagery: this and this, constantly moving but no link or connection
- Simile
- "Piled up"; in a mess, like her life?
- "Last bad storm"; metaphor, storm in her life.. disturbance? Mess? Confusion?
- Line 31 & 32; reference to her life
- "C" sound gives onometopiac feel
- "Jawful"; metaphor
- Lines 35 &36; refernce to her. that is her summation of life. poem ends on a note of optimism and hope

	Created by Kate O'Reilly about 9 years ago

Note on The Bight - Elizabth Bishop, created by Kate O'Reilly on 15/11/2015.