Bishop starts off the poem explaining that it’s made up of very basic colors (steel grays and greens). She also states that the painting is very small and that it is of a place in Novia Scotia. I think the way she speaks about the painting in the beginning really makes what she is trying to say even more powerful. The simplicity of the painting shows that any piece of art, no matter how seemingly insignificant, can be a picture of something that would otherwise be lost.
In the second stanza, Bishop says, “In the foreground a water meadow with some tiny cows, two brushstrokes each, but confidently cows”. I think with this one line she’s reiterating that even the most effortless art pieces have some significance and some meaning. Even though they were just slight brushstrokes, Bishop says that they were “confidently cows”.
Secondly, in that same stanza, she talks about the church steeple saying, “Elm trees., low hills, a thin church steeple -that gray-blue wisp-or is it?”. I think here she means to show two things. On the surface, it seems that she can’t make out what the wisp is, but I think the deeper meaning of that line is that art is up for interpretation. That blue gray wisp could be a church steeple, but it could also be something else to someone else.
With all that set-up, she then begins to recognize the place, and she remembers it being passed down from her great Uncle George. This begins to explain the significance of art as a whole. It’s a window into a different time and place. She and her Uncle George lived years apart, but somehow their views are united through this tiny painting. It’s a window that doesn’t change, and without it she and her Uncle may not have been able to share this “look” together.
I think she titles the poem “Poem” because poetry is her form of art. She uses words, rather than paint to create her windows and views. That way it will be possible to share what she sees with someone else, even after she has passed. I think Bishop does this very well in all of her poems. She is a very descriptive poet, as we have talked about in class, and I think each of her works does an excellent job of allowing me to see into her world.
Reading and Writing 