Abstract
This paper discusses and analyzes Elizabeth Bishop's poem, "One Art", discussing specifically the theme and message of the poem. The paper shows how, by effectively incorporating poetic elements, Bishop artistically compensates through her poetic division of instructions, commands and examples, revealing that over time one may learn to cope with the loss of a loved one.

From the Paper
"In the last stanza, Bishop's focus changes from material possessions and places to a personal loss, and her attitude or tone changes noticeably as well. Bishop sympathetically reveals, \Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture I love) I shan't have lied\ (16, 17). Through this image of memorable traits, Bishop emotionally conveys a heartfelt loving relationship that has been lost in the past, and she tries to hide or bury that loss by putting these memories in parentheses. It is evident that Bishop is trying very hard to detach herself from pain and the loss of a lover, but her heart is still attached. Within these lines, Bishop reinforces the idea that love is a part of human nature, and true love is something that seems irreplaceable. Through Bishop's poem, one is reminded that loss is hard to deal with, but it is a process that we all must face."

Tags:death, coping, pain, tone

Abstract
The paper is a criticism of the poem "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop, using the formalist approach (which advocates that meaning is derived by analysis of the text only). In the poem, Bishop ponders whether one can become a master at losing things and provides an answer. The paper analyzes the poem's use of value progression and the meaning of words and phrases both connotatively and denotatively. It shows how the thesis is made into a paradox by the last stanza, which in the end provides the ultimate meaning of the poem.

From the Paper
By comparing the phrase "the art of losing isn't hard to master" with the frequently used word "disaster," the meaning begins to take shape. This phrase is used four times in this nineteen-line poem (lines 1, 6, 12, 18). Considered closely with the word "disaster," also used four times, one sees the speaker is making a point of rhyming the words master and disaster to emphasize the denotative point that many losses are not disasters they can be accepted without grief or regret (3, 9, 15, 19)."

Tags:formalism, formalist, poetry, human, afflication, regret

Abstract
This paper examines the role of paintings in ekphrastic poetry (the rhetorical description of a work of art). It shows how Elizabeth Bishop makes her fictional painting 'real' through her poem, "Large Bad Picture". It presents a comparison between "Large Bad Picture" to W.H. Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts." The paper also provides an examination of how Bishop divides her poem between setting the scene and then delivering the poem's argument.

From the Paper
"Having settled her reader comfortably, Bishop then takes the next two stanzas to describe in clear, precise language the subject of the painting. In one long sentence enjambed over two stanzas, she describes the sunset, the span of high blue cliffs and the small caves that dot their base. The final line of the third stanza returns the reader to the title describing the caves that riddle the cliffs as being "masked by perfect waves." (12). Her description of the waves as being "perfect" give the first hint of her contention that this is a bad picture. The reader begins to understand that this composition, while possibly well executed, is unrealistic, that the painter has seen perfection in natural phenomena that are inherently imperfect and organic."

Tags:anthropomorphization, personification, seascape, setting

Abstract
This paper analyzes Elizabeth Bishop's poems "Pink Dog" and "Filling Station". The author points out some of the humorous devices she uses. The paper concludes with an analysis of what the overall effect of her technique.

Abstract
This essay reviews Elizabeth Bishops poem "The Weed" and explores how it demonstrates her longing for parental figures in childhood, their absence, and the effect it has on her and will have on her children.

Tags:Freud, literature, poetry, signifier, symbolism, women

Abstract
This paper explains that Bishop's observation in "The Fish" not only creates an image of the fish for the reader, but also expands the scope of the poet's appreciation for the fish. The author points out that, in this narrative poem, Bishop uses rhetorical and sound devices, as well as tone, metaphor, symbolism, personification, simile, and imagery. The paper relates that her great attention to detail allows us to understand the fish as Bishop does and, as a result, to understand why she sets the fish free.

From the Paper
"These lines illustrate the poet's ability to capture details about the simplest and smallest of things. The poet utilizes the technique of hyperbole here by stating that the fish's eyes were bigger than her own were. Her intention is to make us sense the life she became aware of when she looked into the fish's eyes, which ultimately makes her feel sympathy for the fish. The action of looking into the fish's eyes is also powerful in that it allows the poet to personify the fish. We also discover the poet's use of an apostrophe here, which is emphasized by the poet's looking into the fish's eyes."

Tags:rainbow, catching, sympathy, free, techniques

Abstract
Poets make a conscious decision with ekphrastic poetry (poems based on works of art) as to the extent of the role of the artwork in the poem. This paper looks at Elizabeth Bishop's "Large Bad Picture" and compares it to W.H. Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts" and explores each poet's different ekphrastic approach.

From the Paper
"Bishop's poem, unlike Auden's, takes for its basis an unknown work of art. She overcomes reader unfamiliarity with the painting by describing the painting in close detail. Then by providing a wealth of personal details about the artist in the first stanza-his profession, his love of exploring the Canadian coastline-she establishes her reliability as a narrator. It is as if Bishop pulls up a chair and invites her reader to sit down and listen while she shares all she knows about an awful painting and its painter. This initial grounding is a technique described by poet William Stafford as "traction on the ice between writer and reader-statements that do not demand much belief, easy claims, even undeniable progressions without need of authority" (65)."

Tags:auden, bishop, ekphrasia

Abstract
This paper shows how Bishop's poem "Sestina" is a sestina in itself and follows the traditional format of the French lyric style, which results in a continuous maze of words that does not end, strengthening the author's theme of perpetual life cycles.

From the Paper
""September rain falls on the house/ in the failing light..." is how the poem begins. In the first two lines, the text has already made two references to the ceasing of a natural occurrence. September is the start of autumn and the end of summer. The descending sun signifies the close of another day. The probability that the sun will rise tomorrow, and that another August will eventually come, makes these two events recurring cycles of nature. The changing of the seasons and the rotation of the earth are inevitable laws of the universe."

Tags:lyric, stanza, cycle

Abstract
This paper serves as an analysis of the meaning of Rich's poem, "It's True, These Last Few Years I've Lived". In this article, the writer discusses the worldview of the speaker in the poem and the techniques used by Rich to evoke that view.

From the Paper
"The speaker in Adrienne Rich's 'It's True These Last Few Years I've Lived" maintains that over the past few years she has lived. However, the speaker of the poem is filled with irony as she maintains this act of living. For while Rich's poem maintains the speaker has lived, the speaker is actually maintaining that life is nothing but a process of loss. How the speaker has lived has only been to fight against this loss in a manner that has ... "

Tags:death, mortality, letting go, anger, vitriol, Elizabeth Bishop, celebration, art, earthly attachments