Poet's Corner: Five Flights Up by Elizabeth Bishop

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Last month, as part of lunabee43's excellent Poetry Jam 2020, I read Elizabeth Bishop's Geography III, which includes what I think of as is the classic modern villanelle (that isn't the Dylan Thomas one) "One Art." My favourite work of the collection was "12 O'clock News" and I hope to do a fannish send-up of it for April, but my second favourite was this one.

Five Flights Up by Elizabeth Bishop

Still dark.
The unknown bird sits on his usual branch.
The little dog next door barks in his sleep
inquiringly, just once.
Perhaps in his sleep, too, the bird inquires
once or twice, quavering.
Questions---if that is what they are---
answered directly, simply,
by day itself.

Enormous morning, ponderous, meticulous;
gray light streaking each bare branch,
each single twig, along one side,
making another tree, of glassy veins...
The bird still sits there. Now he seems to yawn.

The little black dog runs in his yard.
His owner's voice arises, stern,
"You ought to be ashamed!"
What has he done?
He bounces cheerfully up and down;
he rushes in circles in the fallen leaves.

Obviously, he has no sense of shame.
He and the bird know everything is answered,
all taken care of,
no need to ask again.
---Yesterday brought to today so lightly!
(A yesterday I find almost impossible to lift.)

Comments

[lunabee34]

We have really similar tastes so far in these collections.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Yes, I agree!

I am starting The World's Wife (I got a copy from archive.org and I'm about 8 poems in) but just a head's up that I may not be able to finish it. I am an unhappily married person trying to make the best of my choices and reading too much husband-bashing at one time isn't great for my mental health or equilibrium. I am trying to be detached but I am a poet at heart and the very definition of it means that poems get under my skin whether I want them to or not. One or two poems a day is ok but I can't glut read or I'll get bogged down in Man Hate and can't get through my day [and the laundry! and being Mom Taxi :) ] I will start posting the ones I like (and can deal with) here so that when my loan expires (in about 11 days) I'll have references. Some of them are really intriguing but some of them are like stiletto blade between the ribs.

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

I am not currently unhappily married, but my husband and I are just emerging from a really rough couple of years, so I feel you. I completely understand why that content might not appeal to you.

My copy just came through ILL today, and I haven't even looked at it yet.

[ancientreader]

This poem makes me think about how often shame is inflicted or expected when it makes no sense, has no place, is only a means of being unkind; and how often (though this seems to be outside the poem's scope) those who ought to feel shame ... don't.

Your other comment exchange here makes my heart hurt for you. Hugs if wanted, or anyway just affection.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Yeah, I agree. What people project onto animals (and hurl at other people, too, of course) is just enormous.

I'm ok! But thank you for the affection. I made it to the end of the book a few minutes ago. I skimmed and skipped some of them, though. There's only so much of that I can take. I just finished The Silent Patient for the Book Bingo (it's a thriller!) and that and this makes me realize that certain depictions of heterosexual sex (realistic? marital? I can't really decide what the qualifier. I'm ok with my own Molliarty ficcing, for example) is just blah!