Sestina (Elizabeth Bishop poem) Essay Questions

How does the content of the poem reflect its form?

The poem, as the title tells us, is a sestina. This is a form structured by the rearrangement and repetition of end words, such that specific repeated words form the core of the poem. At the same time, the charge and meaning of these words change as their context and order shift throughout the work. Here, the sestina's repetitions evoke the grandmother's efforts to create order, predictability, and safety. At the same time, this repetition suggests the inescapable reprisal of past traumas, despite efforts to escape them. Finally, the reordering of those repeated words alerts us to the changing relationship of each character to the past and to one another, and informs us that, though past tragedies continue to rear their heads for these characters, they do so in shifting, negotiable ways.

Discuss the significance of one of the repeated words in this work.

This poem is oriented around the repetition of the words "house," "grandmother," "child," "stove," "almanac," and "tears." The word "almanac" simultaneously reminds readers of the grandmother's attempts at orderliness, and hints at the inevitability of the family's tragedy. An almanac is a book containing reference information about topics such as astronomical patterns and calendars. In a sense, then, it is a genre concerned with the predictable and reliable. Here, then, the grandmother's reading of the almanac nods toward her attempt to craft a safe environment for the grandchild following some rupture. At the same time, this is an atypical choice for a children's book, and it hints that the child has been separated from their usual environment and entertainments. Finally, the personified almanac later announces "I know what I know," and "Time to plant tears," suggesting that this reference indeed can contain and predict information about the cyclical, inescapable tragedies of family life.