The Filling by Elizabth Bishop

468 Words2 Pages
dtationFilling station Elizabeth beishop This poem explores the deeper meaning behind things. Bishop is famous for her questioning of everyday things and her attention to details. In the beginning she begins by mocking the appearance of the filling station. She paints a very vivid image of the oil covered garage. She uses repetition of this image to enforce it. She finishes the stanza with her trademark humour. She then describes the family running the filling station. Firstly she tells us about the father he, like the filling station, is covered in oil. He is wearing a suit that is too small for him. Like the garage he doesn’t care much for appearance. He is assisted with several cheeky sons. She says it’s a family filling station, and how can you have a family without a mother? She then notes again how dirty it is, as if to say how the family are quite dirty and untidy. Now begin the questions. She asks do they live here. She notises the poarch at the back with the outdoor furniture with a greasey dig curled up on it. Even though its dirty the dog is content, much like the sons. She then goes deeper stil to talk about the comic books on the doily on the taboret beside the flowers. This shows that someone is working or had worked behind the scenes to make the place look nicer. She again implies a mother. She asks more questions about this appearance she then notes the doily is imbroided. By whom? The father or the sons spend there time water plants and embroiding? She then notes that someone did all these things. She uses sibilance in describing the lines of esso oil lined up. She describes the cars as snobs who don’t want to stop in the grubby filling station. She finishes up with someone loves us all this could be a reference to her own mother who was submitted into hospital full time when she was five. There is a big contrast between the beginning and

More about The Filling by Elizabth Bishop

Open Document