Bishop uses onomatopoeia to draw us in to her poems by helping us to hear as well as see the scenes she describes. For example:
„„‘Click. Click.’ (‘The Bight’)
The repetitive sound here emphasises the fact that life will always go on.
„„‘clogs/ carelessly clacking’ (‘Questions of Travel’)
Bishop combines alliteration with onomatopoeia here so that we can hear the sound the clogs make on the floor.
„„‘shrieked’ (‘The Armadillo’)
The harsh, onomatopoeic sound here helps emphasise the fear and shock felt by the animals when the fire balloon disturbs their habitat.
LANGUAGE
Poets select the language that they use very carefully, and it is therefore important to examine the type of language a poet chooses to use. Concise language is language that is dense, compressed and succinct. It is a very difficult style to achieve. The connotation of a word is the idea or feeling that you get from it, in addition to its literal meaning.
CONCISENESS
Bishop laboured meticulously over her poems for months and even years, and this is clear from her concise use of language. For example:
„„‘He didn’t fight./ He hadn’t fought at all.’ (‘The Fish’) These short staccato lines effectively convey the fish’s resignation to his fate. He has absolutely no fight left in him.
„„‘Think of the long trip home.’ (‘Questions of Travel’)
This is something everyone thinks of at least once when they are far from home, but it also signifies how sometimes we end up very far from ‘home’ in a metaphorical sense, and it is scary to consider how long it will take to get back ‘home’.
„„‘Somebody loves us all.’ (‘Filling Station’)
This is a very brief, but also very profound statement; that every single person is loved.
