Jan 11, 2012

"Filling Station" by Elizabeth Bishop


Filling Station by Elizabeth Bishop : The Poetry Foundation


 Elizabeth Bishop's attitude and tone in "Filling Station" strike me as at least a bit condescending, patronizing. It's hard for me to accept that a mind as sharp as hers would settle for a superficial take on her subject, so I keep coming back to the poem every few weeks or months. That nagging feeling persists. Is it just me? Or would you argue that the filling station people deserve condescension from a major poet?


Filling Station by Elizabeth Bishop : The Poetry Foundation

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8 comments:

Birdman said...

Bet she never pumped gas for a living, got those hands oil ladened, or...

Pasadena Adjacent said...

Makes me crazy happy when the poetry foundation site provides an audio element. Woe to the poet without compelling tonal range....

Up into the last two stanzas, the poem read more as a detailed description of a place. I did like the how in the last verse/stanza she plays with the word ESSO. And how she reveals the hidden female throughout the objects she's left behind (or not) that plant is still receiving water.

gothpunkuncle said...

Though Bishop may not have pumped gas, she was no priss, living as she did for fifteen years in rural Brazil. Though I get Dr. Banjo's objections to tone here, the last stanza pulls away from that condescending voice. Up until this point, she speaks both for and against society, anticipating the sort of judgement people probably have for this place and as she lulls us into these divisive observations, I don't think she approves of them.

Brenda's Arizona said...

I was not sure I saw condescending as much as descriptive. But upon your comments, I see that she does kind of say "EWW!"

Is it the grease or the social economic status that turns her nose up? The fact that MAYBE the family lives in a building attached to the gas station? Or is she just a foreigner in a foreign land? Is she a city folk out for a ride in the country, and suddenly her eyes have been opened?

I wonder what kind of poem she would write about teachers and classrooms? Shall we try for her?

Pasadena Adjacent said...

I find that each of our comments tells more about who we are then explains the poem

Stickup Artist said...

Mmmm. Not one of my favorite poems and I usually find something to appreciate in any effort. But something about this poem really rubs me the wrong way. Like I'm embarrassed or something. But I have a soft spot for people who can do super useful things, like fix a car.

Barbaro said...

I believe you posted this one once before. I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. "Patronizing" may be too gentle; "scornful" might not be too strong.

I didn't know about Bishop in Brazil, so I looked it up. It seems she lived entirely in Rio and its suburbs, hardly "rural." She also lived much of her life on an inheritance, rarely working.

Bishop worked hard to keep her biography out of her poetry, and I'm happy to extend the favor. But the poem itself strikes me as pretty cold, if not dehumanizing.

Banjo52 said...

I turned my responses to your excellent comments into a new post today.

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