The poem manners by Elizabeth Bishop depicts a relationship between a young girl and his aging grandfather. Additionally, history has tough the young girl that the old generation has a wide knowledge and understanding of nature. Moreover, the author depicts that, one gets to understand more of the earthly surroundings if he or she chooses to follow the ways of the old. In addition to the above statement, the girl in the poem is told by her grandfather to be always respectful and polite to everyone around her despite the age of the individual or the circumstance. There is the presence of a crow throughout the poem with a symbolic meaning. The crow has always been used to depict the symbol of death. In this poem, the old man remarks “how the crow is well mannered” when the crow flies away from Willy who is sitting next to the girl and the old man. The grandfather reminds the children not to forget the manners throughout and it is practiced well throughout the nature of the man.
The old man realizes that his time to leave is up and soon he will be no more. When the crow flies away, this depicts that the children should keep on with their goodwill as he had tough them when he will soon leave. Moreover, the craw depicts the symbolic act of obedience when it flies away. On the contrary, this is well depicted in (Bishop Pg. 929.18) where Willy tries to teach the crow to understand what he is doing.
On the other hand, the crow and the grandfather are a true symbol of manners on the society. Additionally, the manners can have tremendous effect when properly tough to the people. However, this does not quite last long as the crow flies away and the old man is about to die.
W.H Auden, Stop all the clocks
Stop all the clocks is a melancholic poem by Auden that portrays tragic grief and loss that is well depicted in the last line “For nothing now can ever come to any good.” Also, the author has used a melancholic sadness that is used to enforce the true mining of loss that is well depicted by the rhyme scheme of the poem.
The first opening line of the poem which has been used to depict the author’s grief by commanding an impossible act to the audience that seems to be impossible “Stop all the clocks.” On the contrary, this shows that the death depicts time as an illusion.
In the poem, the author, shows how to eliminate distractions as a result of telephone rings, piano plays, dog barks, and the clock ticking, which are depicted in the first stanza to show how the author wants to eliminate the destructions by all means. However, the author's suggestions seem to have a hidden meaning until the mentioning of the coffin “Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come” that is mentioned (Auden pg. 926. 4). In line 16 of the last stanza, confirms the hopelessness of the poem to the author with the absence of the deceased.
Elizabeth Bishop, One Art:
One Art is a form of a villanelle poem, where the author has meditated on the art of item losing. More so, she even ends up having a catalog of losing staffs that she has, beginning with the loss of the house key before the climaxing in loss of the house and the loved one “The art of losing isn’t hard to master (Bishop pg.932. 1).”
The author slightly modified the lines keeping in mind the slight adjustments that should be allowed in the villanelle, where she tries to create a dance of the words with consistent repetition of certain lines of the words and lines, as well as creating a variation in the theme. Additionally, she also uses the enjambment that she carries a sense of a line to another, which brings a smooth, energetic flow in the poem.
Work cited
Auden, W. H. "Stop all the clocks [Funeral blues]." Collected poems 120 (1936).
Bishop, Elizabeth. One art. Macmillan, 1995.
Fountain, Gary, and Peter Brazeau. Remembering Elizabeth Bishop: An Oral Biography. Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1994.
