Nebuchadnezzar - “In the Village”
Bishop writes, “Unaccustomed to having her back, the child stood now in the doorway, watching. The dressmaker was crawling around and around on her knees eating pins as Nebuchadnezzar had crawled eating grass.” From the narrator’s viewpoint, the dressmaker’s action of consuming pins is weird for pins are not consumables. Her weird consumption is similar to the Biblical Nebuchadnezzar’s.
Cream - “In the Village”
Bishop writes, “The rocking chair has been painted and repainted so many times that it is as smooth as cream— blue, white, and gray all showing through. My grandmother’s hair is silver and in it she keeps a great many celluloid combs, at the back and sides, streaked gray and silver to match." Manifestly, the rocking chair is utterly smooth due to the repeated painting. Each new painting adds another layer to the chair, thus refining its consistency.
Cavelike - “Efforts of Affection”
Bishop elucidates, “Contact with the librarian was rare; once in a long while, in search of a book, one would be sent into Miss Borden’s office, shadowy and cavelike, with books piled everywhere. She weighed down the papers on her desk with smooth, round stones, quite big stones, brought from the seashore.” The office is analogous to a cave due to the piled up books. Evidently, the numerous books create a dim setting due to the limited lighting of the office. Stones prevent the numerous papers from spreading all over the office.
Dust - “In the Village”
The narrator observes “A white hat. A white embroidered parasol. Black shoes with buckles glistening like the dust in the blacksmith’s shop.” The buckles’ sparkling makes them more conspicuous than other parts of the hat. Sparking buckles amplify the hat’s magnificence. Equating the buckles to dust surmises that they are remarkable and noticeable.
The Horse - “In the Village”
Bishop employs multiple metaphors to describe the horse: “His rump is like a brown, glossy globe of the whole brown world. His ears are secret entrances to the underworld. His nose is supposed to feel like velvet and does, with ink spots under milk all over its pink.” First, brown bread underscores the brownness of the horse’s rump. Second, equating ears to “secret entrances to the underworld” depicts their mysticism: Bishop speculates that the horse’s ears have the capacity to eavesdrop all the activities in the underworld. Finally, velvet accentuates the softness and smoothness of the horse’s nose.
