Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Filling Station
"Filling Station" by Elizabeth Bishop uses the camera shot technique that Burroway described in chapter 5, starting from the long shot to a close-up. The long shot of the gas station reveals that it is dirty (you can't get more blatant than the first line of the poem) and so soaked in oil that there's nothing but black. The warning "be carful with that match!" tells you just how unkempt and disgusting the place is. In the middle shot, she describes the family that works the gas station, the father and sons, and they are a reflection of the filling station. All of them are oil-soaked, greasy, and saucy and she asks if they live at the station? In the close-up, Bishop reveals a different side to the gas station, one that has color from comic books, a begonia, and wicker furniture. The tidy and colorful contrasts the dirty and oily that she presented earlier in the poem and it catches the reader off-guard. Then she adds another layer of depth by stating that someone there must be someone keeping these things tidy: "Somebody embroidered the doily. / Somebody watered the plant". Bishop reveals place by beginning with a general view and then hyperfocusing on the one section of clean in this oil-permeated station and in doing so also reveals the character of whoever it is that cleans that section. That character is a somebody who loves us all.
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Brandi,
ReplyDeleteI love how you analyzed the poem, especially stating quotes and providing the evidence for it, as though why Bishop described the gas station the way she did. I also liked how you depicted the literary techniques of the poem very clearly. You did a great job describing the place by how it starts with a general view and then it gets hyperfocused - (ha! loved this use of diction). I also like how you started using an example of a camera technique to describe the poem. Great!
I like how you took the camera angle technique that Burroway describes and applied it to the poem. That really gives us a perspective on what kinds of techniques the author might be using to write their poems.
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