The Bight (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Elizabeth Bishop
- First Published: 1949
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: United States or Americans, France or French people, South or Southerners, Nature, 1940’s, Poetry or poets, Violence, Boats or boating, Fishes
The Poem
“The Bight” is a lyric of thirty-six lines that provides a veritable showcase of Elizabeth Bishop’s aesthetic of observation and her metaphoric impulse. The bracketed subtitle—“On my birthday”—suggests both an occasion and, perhaps, a gift. Such an occasion usually implies the assessment that people are prone to on their birthdays, but, in this case, the poet seems to be tallying up the contents of a localized landscape.
A bight is a small bay between two points of land, and here the topography in question is Garrison Bight in Key West, Florida,...
[The entire page is 1499 words long]
See Also:
Elizabeth Bishop (Poetry)Elizabeth Bishop (Cyclopedia of World Authors)Elizabeth Bishop (Identities and Issues)
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