Elizabeth Bishop's "Sestina"

"Sestina" is one of Elizabeth's Bishop's few autobiographical poems.When Bishop's father died, her mother had to be institutionalized for a mental break down. Bishop moved to Canada and was cared for by her maternal grandmother. This poem, as well as "In the Waiting Room" and "First Death in Nova Scotia," are reflective of her experiences while with her grandmother.

"Sestina" opens with the image of the "old grandmother" who "sits in the kitchen with the child." The grandmother seems to be privy to some impending doom fore casted by both her experience and the almanac. We are told that, once hung on its string, the almanac "hovers half open above the child/hovers above the old grandmother/and her teacup full of dark brown tears" (20-23). Meanwhile, the child is drawing a "rigid house/and puts in a man with buttons like tears"(28-29).

At the start of the poem, the grandmother is telling jokes and laughing "to hide her tears"(6). This is the first instance where Bishops uses the word 'tears.' It is located at the end of a stanza, which otherwise offers a calm and cheery fireside scene until its closing line.

The grandmother and the child are given a equal voice in the poem. The grandmother knows sorrow and looks on as the young child is sketching out her future sadness in the form of a man. Some critics have drawn connections between the sadness in the house and the mysterious man as being related to her father's death. Instead of mourning, the grandmother tries to hide her tears and the child draws a "rigid house" with a "flower bed" "carefully placed in the front of the house" (34-35). The outward appearance of happiness, as the image related in the first 5 lines of the poem, is depreciated by its insincerity.

The marvelous nature of the sestina is its ability to draw associations without using conventional rhyme or alliteration. The subtle method of the sestina gives the impression that the world is interconnected. Each line of Bishop's poem must end with one of the six words: house, grandmother, child, stove, almanac, tears. Obviously, Bishop knew that these words had be chosen carefully in order to be both malleable and meaningful in the poem. Her repetition of ending words creates a sense of foreboding. The reader knows that the word 'tears' will appear in every stanza.

The words Bishop chose show both the domesticity and foreboding of the scene. The words 'house,' 'almanac,' and 'stove' become more than the objects they identify. The stove becomes a distraction for the grandmother - a call back to the simple domestic. The almanac is the reminder that the fates never rest. It dictates more than the farmers' crops. The great truth the almanac tells is "only know to the grandmother." It tells her that it is "Time to plant tears."

The 'house' seems to be growing more and more rigid by the end of the poem. Bishop's efforts as a poet writing in this rigid form is also a part of this poem. It ends with the image of the "child draw [ing] another inscrutable house," which keeps with Bishop's self-effacing view of her poetic skill.