The setting of a poem can be conveyed to the reader in various different ways. The three poems that stuck out to me the most were “Night, Death, Mississippi” by Robert Hayden, “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” by James Wright, and “The Bight”, by Elizabeth Bishop. In both “Night, Death, Mississippi” as well as “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota”, the place where the poem takes place is given right in the title. Elizabeth Bishop also uses this approach in her poem. I researched the term, and found out that a bight usually refers to a bay or a coast. Because these authors title their pieces with an obvious reference to the place they plan on describing, it makes the actual poem easier to understand. For example, from the title “Night, Death, Mississippi”, one can infer that the poem is about a violent event that occurred in Mississippi. The line “White robes like moonlight...In the sweet gum dark”, not only tells us what Hayden is referring to-and therefore gives us the time period of this piece-but also paints a strong image of the juxtaposition of the night sky and the clothing of the offenders. This gives us the setting for the occurrence that Hayden is talking about. James Wright’s poem, “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” is full of setting. Practically the entire poem is describing what is around him with the exception of the very last line-“I have wasted my life”. Wright is very specific in this piece of the location of the things that surround him. For example, “To my right, In a field of sunlight between two pines, The droppings of last year’s horses Blaze up into golden stones.” He wants the reader to know exactly where everything is. To him, this is the only accurate way to convey his setting. In Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, the title is a little less revealing, and therefore the setting may be harder to decipher. However, the author opens with a comment on low tide, and then makes various references to boats throughout her piece. This is an indicator that “The Bight” takes place on a coast or at a beach.
Carmen,
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you point out that the titles to these poems are in fact the places that the poems describe. In a weird way, it kind of renders the poems useless because we already have all we need to know in the titles. But as you pointed out, we get juxtaposition and time period and character in these poems and it adds so much to the experience. Especially with Wright, these poems force the readers to know exactly where everything is. We're not only getting place but we're getting setting.