How Elizabeth Bishop Incorporated Her Life Experiences in Her Work - Essay Example

?Kim Gray Dr. Galgan AML 3515 March How Elizabeth Bishop Incorporated Her Life Experiences in Her Work Considered as one of the greatest American poets of the 20th century, Elizabeth Bishop’s life was not easy one. She lost her father when she was a baby and witnessed her mother have nervous breakdown various times as a child, hence instilling in her feelings of despair. At five, she was effectively an orphan, never to be reunited with her mother, who was then permanently committed to a mental institution (Millier 56). Living with her maternal grandparents, she experienced living in a comfortable, loving environment, a period which she referenced to in her works, In the Village and Sestina. But this new found balance in Bishop’s life was upset when her well-to-do paternal grandparents, decided to raise her in Worcester. Feeling kidnapped and uprooted from her family, she became a sickly child. She was then passed on to a maternal aunt hoping she can regain her health and liveliness, but it simply didn’t happen. During adulthood, she found a new home and friend in Brazil, and as a new story tries to unfurl, her Lota de Maceto, perhaps the only friend she’s ever had in her life, commits suicide, leaving her alone again. One may say that Elizabeth Bishop’s life is characterized by dislocation and isolation. She never learned to call a place “home” because she moved around a lot (Millier 56). In an unpublished poem, Bishop compared herself to a doll: “Their stoicism I never mastered / their smiling phrase for every occasion” (as quote in Millier 56). This line was like a commentary to the smiles these dolls were so ready to give – a characteristic she never acquired in her life. Perhaps she was a lonely child because she never had a place to be called home. Or maybe she had a terrible experience in child which led to trauma in her adult life. Whatever the reason was, we know from her work that Elizabeth Bishop was a lonely poet, a joyless woman. From her loneliness, she has she has created some of the best pieces of literature known in America today. Her tragic experiences and inner pain has led her to delve into topics which are familiar to the common person. Her works, Sestina, A Prodigal, and In the Village all carry her unmistakable voice, recounting her experiences, re-evaluating her views. Her work may involve some sparse details of her life, but it never delved into her own emotions, nor did she allow herself to rant through her writings. Instead, every one of her works have been carefully laid out to tell a common story, but always in a highly objective way, always using the third person point of view. Her three works never used the words, “I”, “me” or “my” to refer to herself, so that if one never knew her background, then one would never know that she is relating her own story. Her choice of style speaks of her own way of dealing with her emotions. Brett Millier says in his article, The Prodigal: Elizabeth Bishop and Alcohol, “[Bishop] chastised herself for lapses in her restraint” (Millier 56). Here was a woman in pain, who did not allow herself to cry, a woman who lost her loved one, but never really learned how to grieve for them. At a young age, she learned to depend only on herself, because her environment had no stability. She could not rely on her grandparents because she knew she’ll be passed on to someone else again. Her feelings of dislocation did not allow her to call any place her home (Millier 56), hence, she was forever travelling, never really allowing herself to stop and settle down in a place. She was also raised as a genteel, and was supposed to have a perfect life – she was not allowed to show emotion in front of other people. She did not have the capacity to deal with her own grief and loneliness because she was never taught how to. Millier says that this is the reason for Bishop’s alcoholism, “In a nature so reticent, which kept painful memory and anguish even from itself, alcohol provided license to talk, to cry, to stop being the stoical New Englander she’d been raised to be” (56). Through writing, Bishop learned how it was to show her emotion. Each of her work is wrought with the emotions of the characters, emotions which Bishop herself experienced. Readers immediately recognize what these emotions are, and they get a ride of Bishop’s entire life. Reading Bishop is like riding an emotional rollercoaster – one time you will be feeling despair, in the next instance, you will experience a moment of acceptance, only to repeat the cycle again. With her non-linear style, one gets a sense that this poet’s life has been topsy-turvy – or to be more accurate, her experience of life has been chaotic, but not necessarily erratic. For example, her work, In the Village received this criticism, “Author simply doesn’t tell enough…[she] is not limited to her point of view, and therefore can be sufficiently explicit for the reader to relax and enjoy the writing” (Green 31). This is one short story that can only be understood by someone attentive enough to determine when the narration has shifted from third to person, or by someone who can discover that this writing is not told as a story, but rather a poetic prose meant to create an immediate emotional effect. Bishop’s work is interspersed with metaphors, but these metaphors are so difficult to find because they use common words, and they express a common thought. Bishop used her own emotions and imparted her characters with them, in order to allow her reader to experience her own emotion. Her chosen literary style pushes the reader to continually reach out in order to understand what she is trying to convey. Her works are not for the leisure reader, instead it is for someone who wishes to understand the various aspects of man. Her works are continuously puzzling, hence a reader cannot simply sit back and relax to enjoy her topic, instead one has to stand up and try to decrypt her puzzles. For example, a short reading of Sestina, one may ask: what was the “Marvel Stove”? Why was it able to speak, and why did the grandmother sing to it? Why was it referenced to as if it was a proper noun? Moreover, in Sestina, there was a repeating reference to tears, the house and the man, Why was this so? Only through the reading of the entire poem would one begin to understand what it is all about. Named for its style, Sestina has no identifiable patterns, no rhymes like in a typical poem. But like a sestina, the Sestina was effective at creating distress in its lines, and it echoes the tension that the child must’ve felt while listening to the exchange between the grandmother and the Marvel Stove. Bishop’s Sestina showed that the child must have tried to understand what was going on, but it was simply too much for her mind to grasp it all at once. It was the perfect style to write about a simple but emotionally complex topic. As illustrated by the discussion above, Bishop’s seemingly chaotic writing has a pattern in itself, but it is one that can only be discovered when one decides to commune with her art. Just as the direction of the wind starts to make sense when one pays attention to where it is blowing, or the songs of the bird starts to make a melody when one starts to listen, Bishop’s work can only be understood when one decides to read with the heart. Bishop may have failed to voice out her own thoughts and emotions, leading her to alcoholism, but through her work, she is asking for sympathy, of understanding, of love. Perhaps this is the reason why she is so successful – one needs to have the right attitude and state of mind in order to discover the beauty of her work. When one has finally understood what Bishop is trying to say then it is the only time that one will be able to appreciate the literary style and the words she has chosen to convey her message. When one has one has finally understood, then one will realize that each word used in Bishop’s poem or short story has a deeper meaning. For example, in the last three (fifth to seventh) stanzas: It was to be, says the Marvel Stove I know what I know, says the almanac. With crayons the child draws a rigid house and a winding pathway. Then the child puts in a man with buttons like tears and shows it proudly to the grandmother. But secretly, while the grandmother busies herself about the stove, the little moons fall down like tears from between the pages of the almanac into the flower bed the child has carefully placed in the front of the house. Time to plant tears, says the almanac. The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove and the child draws another inscrutable house. (Bishop 120) Here, the repetitive words almanac, stove, house and tears mean different things, but they share the same characteristics in every instance. For example, the almanac refers to something like a guidebook or a recordbook. It contained unbendable truths and rules which must be followed. It was also hovering over the characters as if it was camera recording every event. On the fifth stanza, the almanac could be referring to the Bible, on the sixth stanza, it could be a recipe book which the grandmother was using to prepare their meal, and on the seventh, it could be a rule book for the sanatorium. But the almanac may be more than these, and it all depends on the background of the reader. Of all the repetitive words, it was only the grandmother which had the same meaning everytime, and this was understandable since Bishop has always felt loved when she was living with her maternal grandmother. By keeping its meaning constant all throughout poem, Bishop was also signifying that this was the person who gave her stability in her life, perhaps the only person whom she referred to as her family. Hence, in the chaos that is Sestina, one will see a balance. This is the story of Elizabeth Bishop – orphaned from childhood, passed on from one family member to another. But despite the chaos of her life, Elizabeth found a refuge in her grandmother and her writing. From this discussion, one can already see that Bishop effectively used her craft to tell her story, but she does it in a different way. While her contemporaries utilized the confessional style which involves many details about the author’s life, Bishop expressed her life through the structure of her work, the words she used, the pattern and literary style she chose. In the same way she has hidden her emotions from others, her work does not show emotion on the surface, especially to those who will not care enough to delve into the deeper meaning of her poems and short stories. Each of her work is Elizabeth Bishop through and through, in so many ways. The meanings behind Bishop’s work are not “found”, because they are not hidden. Instead, it is “revealed” in that the meaning is not cloaked with metaphors, it is there all along, but in order to understand it, one has to learn to speak another language, Bishop’s language, which comes not from the head, but rather, from the heart. Using the biblical figure of the prodigal son, Bishop talks about how she lost her way and how she decided to finally go home. Though little is known about her experience with alcoholism, Millier says that Bishop fell into a deep depression where periods of sobriety became so much rarer. But in 1950, in a letter to her doctor Anny Bauman, Bishop said” I’ve been having sort of a brainstorm ever since I got here, just can’t stop writing, can’t sleep, and although at the time I wrote before I had managed not to drink for a stretch, I’ve certainly made up for it since & made a fool of myself & got it a peck of troubles - & made a very good friend of mine here very unhappy. Well last night…I felt like death, it seemed a sort of natural phenomenon equal to the brainstorming and I suddenly made up my mind. I will not drink…I also know I’ll go insane if I keep it up. I cannot drink and I know it. (as quoted in Millier 60) From this description, one can already see a parallelism with her poem, The Prodigal, “But sometimes mornings after the drinking bouts / (he hid the pints behind the two-by-fours) / the sunrise glazed the barnyard mud with red/ the burning puddles seemed to reassure. / And then he thought he almost might endure / his exile yet another year or more. “ (Bishop, “The Prodigal” 50). Here, we see how Bishop described when at the peak of her alcoholism she saw glimpses of light asking her to change her ways. But these moments were quickly replaced by a “puddle” which acted as a mirror that refracted the light. So she decided to continue on with her alcohol binges until she experienced the moment she described above. In the poem, this moment was described more poetically, “Carrying a bucket along a slimy board, / he felt the bats’ uncertain staggering flight, / his shuddering insights, beyond his control, touching him.” (Bishop, “The Prodigal” 50). Through these quotes, one can already see clearly how Bishop relates her own story – it is not hidden in anyway, and just like Sestina, her message is clear. But then again, the discussion of this paper on The Prodigal is only superficial. Typical of the Sestina, one can look at the structure of the poem, the style she used, and the words she chose to find a deeper meaning to her work. At one glance, The Prodigal centers on one period of the prodigal son’s journey. It was not the stench of his workplace, or the difficulties he experienced in his life that made him come home. It was not his desire to have a better life that made him go back to his father. Instead, it was a realization that the world is at stake if he doesn’t change. It was a feeling that the world will come crashing down on him if continues on his practice. So in a sense, Bishop was giving the story of the prodigal son a capability to reflect, and take into consideration the future of the “world”. Why did Bishop choose a more straightforward approach, and not use the sestina structure? Well, one may sense that Bishop did not want to complicate The Prodigal. It was a really easy read, hence, giving the feeling to the reader that the decision of the prodigal son to come home was certainly not a difficult one, it was just something he did not want to do because he did not feel the need to do it. But with the world at stake, the world calling for his attention, his coming home is almost a sacrifice on his part, instead of a self gratifying act as was portrayed in the Bible. If Sestina and The Prodigal were truly relating the story of Bishop’s life, one glaring theme has to be mentioned: the use sexless common nouns like “child” and “prodigal”. Bishop was a known lesbian, who had relationships with other women. But she did not publicly identify this. Even in The Prodigal, she did not write the word “son”, because this had a biological connotation. But then in the poem, she proceeded on to call the character as a “he” which refers to her gender identity. Meanwhile, as a child when she had no awareness of her gender preferences, she was neither a “boy” or “girl”, but only a “child” to connote to her needs as a young human being who needs love and care from a family. By incorporating her life experiences in her work, Bishop made her poems personal but reflective of the common suffering that everyone experiences. It also served as a reminder that whatever the past were, it was important to deal with them and use them to fuel one’s efforts towards success. It is obvious from her work that grief is ever present in her life, but this did not stop her from creating great masterpieces. Her work is no longer about the trauma she has experienced, but rather, her capability to transform this trauma into a strength. Elizabeth Bishop’s works are not easy reading. They are contemplative and insightful and they are a source of wisdom for people who are seeking to understand the human being. Through Sestina and The Prodigal, Bishop has shown that even the most confusing pieces of literature have order in them. With these two works, Bishop has proven what “art” truly means. She has combined thinking and perception, and made it a requisite into discovering the inner meaning of her words. References Bishop, Elizabeth. “Sestina.” Bishop: Poems, Prose and Letters. Ed. Alice Helen Methfessel. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 2008. 120. Print. ---. “The Prodigal.” Bishop: Poems, Prose and Letters. Ed. Alice Helen Methfessel. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 2008. 54. Print. Green, Fiona. “Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘In the Village’ in the New Yorker.” Critical Quarterly 52.2 (1953): 29-44. Print. Millier, Brett C. “The prodigal: Elizabeth Bishop and alcohol.” Contemporary Literature 39.1 (1998): 56-76. Print. Read More