U N I U E R S I D A D E F E D E R A L DE SANT A C A T A R I N A P Ó S - G R A D U A G S O EM INGLiS E L I T E R A T U R A C O R R E S P O N D E N T E B R A Z I L IN THE P O E T R Y OF E L I Z A B E T H B I S H O P : A " D A Z Z L I N G D I A L E C T I C " por M ARI A LÚCIA M I L L É O M A R T I N S
Dissert ação 'submet ida à U n i v e r s i d a d e Federal de Santa C a t a r i n a para a o b t e n ç ã o do grau de M E S T R E EM LE TRAS
F L O R I A N Ó P O L I S N o v e m b r o de Í99E
Esta d i s s e r t a ç ã o foi jul ga da a d e q u a d a e a p r o v a d a em sua forma final pelo P r o g r a m a de P ó s - G r a d u a ç ã o em Inglês para a o b t e n ç ã o do grau de
M E S T R E EM L E T R A S O pçã o Inglês e L i t e r a t u r a C o r r e s p o n d e n t e ^ L e o n o r Sc 1 iar-Cabral C O O R D E N A D O R A O R I E N T A D O R B A NCA E X A M I N A D O R A : Dilvo I. Ri sto ff é lvio A. Funck F l orianópolis, 20 de n o v e m b r o de 1992
For M aria Tereza, L u c iano "Um abra ç o de
and Nicole, gaivot a . . ."
IV
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
First I would like to thank two peo p le in special. P r o f e s s o r José R o b e r t o O'Shea, my adviser, for his ind e f a t i g a b l e and m e t i c u l o u s work of reading and ed iting my or iginal drafts, and for the many s u g g e s t i o n s ind i s p e n s a b l e to the cla rity and quality of the final version. I also wish to thank P r o f e s s o r Dilvo I. Ristoff, my co-ad vis er, for his con t i n u i n g support and e n t h u s i a s m since the very begi n n i n g of this p r o j e c t .
For making the '‘dream" feasible, I owe a great deal to two i n s t i t u t i o n s — L A S P A U / F u l b r i g h t - - which all owe d me to have access to Bish o p ' s special c o l l e c t i o n s at V a s s a r C o l lege and Harv ard Universi ty, durin g a s h o r t - t e r m p r o g r a m abroad.
Among the pe ople con tacted abroad, some de serve special reference-. Eamon Grennan, P r o f e s s o r of the English Dep art ment at V a ssar College, who kind ly offer ed to be my adviser during my stay in P oughkeep sie, for all the help and stimulu s to my work. Nancy Mac Kechnei, the Cu rator of the Rare Book Ro om at Massar, for her i n d i s p e n s a b l e assist anc e. Lo rrie Goldenso hn, Lloyd S c h w a r t s and Helen Vend 1e r , who, in s pi te of their ext reme ly busy schedules, prom p t l y ac cep ted to receive me for personal interviews, for their p r e c i o u s c o n t r i b u t i o n to my work. James Merrill, for having kind ly gran ted perm i s s i o n to my ac cess to Bisho p ' s c o r r e s p o n d e n c e to him.
I am also grateful to all the P r o f e s s o r s of the E ng li sh Department of U n i v e r s i d a d e Federal de S anta Catarina, e s pecially P r o f e s s o r s Sé rgio Luis P r ado Bellei and S u s ana Funck, for their si g nificant "pre sen ce" along the M a s t e r ' s course. In the same Unive rsi ty, I would like to thank João Inácio Miiller, for all the help with the c o m p u t e r instructions.
V BRAZIL. IN TH E P O E T R Y OF E L I Z A B E T H B I SHO P: A " D A Z Z L I N G D I A L E C T I C " MARIA L ÚCIA M I L L É O M A R T I N S U N I V E R S I D A D E F E D E R A L DE S A N T A C A T A R I N A 1992
S up e r v i s i n g Pro fes sor: José R o b e r t o O ' S h e a A s s o c i a t e S u p e r v i s i n g Professor-. D il vo I. Ri s toff
A B S T R A C T
The p r e s e n c e of Brazil in the poetry of Eliz a b e t h Bishop ex ten ds along a peri od of almost t hree decades, from the early 1950s with "Arrival at Santos," up to the late 1970s with "Pink Dog" and " S a n t a r é m , ” p ublished shor tly b e f o r e the p o et's death in 1979. C o n s i d e r i n g the significant s pa ce that Brazil o c c u p i e s in Bisho p ' s poetry and the intim ate c o n n e c t i o n bet ween her poe try and her own e x p e r i e n c e in this country, this res earch inv e s t i g a t e s the de vel opment of Bish op's p e r c e p t i o n of Brazil thr ou gh the c h a n g e s in the p e r s o n a e ' s views ex pr e s s e d along the cour s e of the re levant poems. Four main mo ment s are identified in this process: the poet's first i m p r e s s i o n s of Brazil as a "to ur ist" and a "traveler"; the proc e s s of immersion into the B r azilian context from the perc e p t i o n of to the identifi c a t i o n with "the other"; the conflict with the familiar; and the poetic r e c o n s t r u c t i o n of what "has been lost." C h a nges and a c c o m p 1 ishm ent s of B i s h o p ' s poetry from this period will also be focused during the p r o c e s s of analysis to the extent that these bear upon her p e r c e p t i o n s of Brazil as e xpressed in the poetry. Finally, this d i s s e r t a t i o n c o n c l u d e s that B i s h o p ' s d e p i c t i o n of Brazil thr ough her poems does not reveal a partial, s t e r e o t y p e d view of the country, co mmonly found among co nve ntion al foreign tour i s t s or "outsi de o b s e r v e r s . " Conve rsel y, her poems convey a much richer perspe ctiv e, resultant from the "d azz lin g d i a l e c t i c " of her own e x p e r i e n c e in living the two cultures, her own and the one she met in B r a z i l .
vi
R E SUMO
A p r e s e n ç a do Brasil na p o esia de Elia a b e t h Bishop e s t e n d e - s e por um p e r í o d o de quase três décadas, do inicio dos anos 50 com "Arrival at Santos", até o final dos anos 70 com "Pink Dog" e " S a n t a r é m ”, p u b l i c a d o s p o uco antes da m orte da p o e t i s a em 1979. C o n s i d e r a n d o - s e o s i g n i f i c a t i v o e s p a ç o que o Brasil ocup a na po esia de Bishop e a íntima r e l a ç ã o ent re a sua poes i a e a sua p r ó p r i a e x p e r i ê n c i a no país, essa p e q u i s a inve s t i g a o d e s e n v o l v i m e n t o da. sua p e r c e p ç ã o de Brasil a t r a v é s de m u d a n ç a s nas p e r s p e c t i v a s das "personae", e x p r e s s a s ao longo do c u r s o dos r e s p e c t i v o s poemas. Q uat r o p r i n c i p a i s mome n t o s são i d e n t i f i c a d o s nes se processo-. as p rim e i r a s i m pressões de Brasil da poet i s a como " turist a" e "viajante"; o p r o c e s s o de im ersão no c o n t e x t o bras ile iro , da p e r c e p ç ã o à i d e n t i f i c a ç ã o com "o outro".; o c o n f l i t o com o familiar; e a r e c o n s t r u ç ã o p o é t i c a do que "se p e r d e u ”. Muda n ç a s e c o n q u i s t a s da p o e s i a de Bish op des se p e r í o d o s e r ã o t a m b é m foca l i z a d a s dura n t e o p r o c e s s o de anál ise à m e d i d a em que e s t i v e r e m r e l a c i o n a d a s com sua p e r c e p ç ã o de Brasil, e x p r e s s a na sua poesia. Fin alme nte , essa d i s s e r t a ç ã o conclui que, ao r e t r a t a r o Brasil em seus poemas, Bishop não revela, uma visã o parcial e e s t e r e o t i p a d a do país, c o m u m e n t e e n c o n t r a d a ent re t u r i s t a s e s t r a n g e i r o s ou “o b s e r v a d o r e s ext erno s". Ao contrário, seus poem a s d e m o n s t r a m uma p e r s p e c t i v a bem ma is rica, r e s ultante da sua e x p e r i ê n c i a de vive r a "daHzl ing d i a l e c t i c " das duas culturas, a sua e a que e n c o n t r o u no Brasil.
TABL E OF C O N T E N T S vi i A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s ... iv A b s t r a c t ... v R e s u m o ... vi Table of C o n t e n t s ...vii C hapter I I n t r o d u c t i o n ... i
C h apter II A F o r e i g n e r in the "Strangest of T h e a t r e s " ... 9
C h a p t e r III F r o m the P e r c e p t i o n of to the I d e n t i f i c a t i o n with “the O t h e r " ... 3©
Ill.'i P e r c e p t i o n of "the O t h e r " ... 31
111.2 Sense of Home and A n t i c i p a t i o n of L o s s ... 44
111.3 Poetic Resp o n s e s to Social and Po li tical P r o b l e m s ...52
1 1 1 . 4 Id entification with "the O t h e r “...67
Chapter IV The Conflict with the Fam i l i a r and the Ad op tion of the M a s k ... ...77
Ch a p t e r V The Poetic Rec o n s t r u c t i o n of What Has Been L o s t ... 92
C h a pter V-I C o n c l u s i o n ...104
B i b l i o g r a p h y ...114
C H A P T E R I
I N T R O D U C T I O N
Two pl aces are considered of p a r t i c u l a r i m portance in the course of E l i z a b e t h Bishop's life as a poet: Nova S c otia and Brazil. The former, wher e she lived from the age of three to the age of six and visi ted several times in her adult life, was the set tin g for some of her best poems like "Cape B r e t o n “ and "At the F i s h h o u s e s . " The latter, w h ere she spent her midd l e age from the early 1950s up to the begi n n i n g of the 1970s, yie lde d Quest ions of Travel and infl uen ced a great deal the poet ry she produ c e d after this period.
B i s h o p ' s decis ion to make a r o u n d - t h e - w o r I d jou rne y in late Novembe r, 1951, which result ed in her long stay in Brazil, happens in a crucial moment in her life ma rked by years of solitude. In a lett er to Robert Lowell, few ye ars b e f o r e her trip, Bisho p re fers to s o l i t u d e as al ready part of her life:
I think you said a whil e ago that I'd "laugh you to scorn" on some c o n v e r s a t i o n you & J. had had about how to protest on eself against so lit u d e & e n n u i — but indeed I wouldn't. That's just the kind of "su ffe rin g" I'm most at home with & h e l p l e s s about, I'm afraid, but what with 2 d ays of fog and ala rmi ng low tides I've really got it bad & think I'll write you a note be fore I go out & eat some ma ckerel.*
M o nths later, in anot her letter to Lowell, Bishop again refers to her lone liness as som ething "eye 1 ic al"and to the dull n e s s of her
rout ine
The "lon eliness" is pret ty bad here, t o o — in fact I'm sure in some ways it's much more bori ng than Vaddo. No one interes ting has turned up here for years and my dear friends <4> and I when we get to get her just are apt to sit around and disc u s s the f a c t . But there is swimming and fishing and when I feel too awful I take a long bicycle ride. You know w h a t — my "l one liness" come s in a t t a c k s - - r a t h e r b r i e f — some t i m e s 2 or 3 a day, and then I don't have any for a. week .c
Long' b i c y c l e rides do not seem to solve the p r o blem for too long. T h e " idea of a trip co mes as a p r o m i s e of change, a "shakedown ," as Bishop h e r s e l f defi nes it, in a journal alrea dy on board the N o rwegian f r eighter that would bring her to Brasil.
With no part i c u l a r interest in Brazil, Bishop arrives at the Santos h a rbor with pl ans to go to Rio de Jane i r o for a short visit. Bishop had so me Br azilian friends in Rio, p e ople she had pre v i o u s l y met in New York, among them Maria C a r l o t a Co stellat de Ma cedo Soares, Lota. Once in Rio, Bishop has a violent al lergic rea ctio n to the fruit of the cashew and ends up stay ing at Lota's apartment in Copa cab ana . In a very short time, Lota, the occasional friend, beco m e s her h o s t e s s and nurse, and, eventually, her comp a n i o n for almost two decades.
During her stay in Brazil, Bishop s h a r e s with Lota the apar tme nt in C o p a c a b a n a and a hous e in P e t r o p o l i s — Sam amba ia- -, both r e s p e c t i v e l y immortali zed in the poems: "Apartment in C o p a c a b a n a , " or "Apartment in Leme" (u npublished), and "Song for the Rainy Season ." Be sides these two re sidences, Bishop also keeps for several years a s e v e n t e e n t h - c e n t u r y house that she buys and resto r e s in Ou ro P r e t o - - C a s a Mariana--, in honor of M a r i a n n e Moore.
Fr om the "w indow" of Casa Mariana, Bishop draws the o rdinary sce ne s and c h a r a c t e r s for the poem "Under the Window: Ouro Preto ."
In 1958, Bishop takes part on an e xpe d i t i o n to Mato Gros s o and B ras i l i a with Aldou s Huxley, an e x p e r i e n c e that she re ports years later in the book B r a z i 1 . edited by Time & Life. In the 1960s, two o the r trips also bring about important accounts: a trip down the Amazon in 1961, which a p p ears later in the n ostalgic re- c r e a t i o n of " S a n tarém," and a trip on an old s t e r n - w h e e l e r on the Rio São Fra ncis co, narr a t e d in an u n p u b l i s h e d essay entitled “A Trip on the Rio São F r a n c i s c o . "
As L o rrie G o ldensohn declares, "Throu gho ut this period, from 1951 to 1979, Bra zilian places, houses, and p e ople made th eir way into Bish o p ' s work, po uring viv idl y into her poems, prose, letters, and t r a n s l a t i o n s " ("In the F o o t s t e p s of Eliz a b e t h Bishop in Brazil" 23). It is worth ment i o n i n g here that a significa nt part of this material, still u n p u b l i s h e d and rich in in formation about Brazil, is a v a i l a b l e only to a pri v i l e g e d minorit y who has acc ess to Bish o p ' s special c o l l e c t i o n s held by U n i v e r s i t i e s abroad.
Alth o u g h "Arrival at Santos," B i s h o p ' s first poem about Brazil, comes out in 1952, therefore, soon after her arrival in the country, and other poem s about Brazil are publ i s h e d along the cour s e of the 1950s and 1960s, these po ems only appe ar in a sing le volu m e in 1965, fourteen year s after she had arrived in the country. G athering twe lve poems about Brazil, Quest ions of T ravel is the outc o m e of the poe t' s careful o b s e r v a t i o n of the Braz ilian reality, from her first i m p r essions as a newly ar rived tourist r e g istered in "Arrival at S a n t o s ” up to her symbol ic i d e n t i f i c a t i o n with "the o t h e r ” in "The R i v e r m a n ." One co uld argue that to follow
4
the cour s e of Bish o p ' s poetry in Quest ions of Travel is to follow the proc e s s of her own p e r c e p t i o n of B r a z i l . Ll oyd S c h w a r t z o b s e r v e s in this respect that,
In no other vo lume d i d C B i s h o p l arra nge her poems so c o n s i s t e n t l y out of the order in which she actually w rot e them, and toge t h e r t h e y c o m p o s e an emotional c h r o n o l o g y from the p e r s p e c t i v e of the f o u r t e e n
l l ti r n o nt xn B r a z i l . < E l i z a b e t h y e a r s s h e h a d t h e n s p e n t
Bish op and Bra zil " 91>
TJ, .. . d e v e lopmen t of Bishop 's p e r c e p t i o n If it is p o s s i b l e to o b s erve the aev«=
~ o . i *. .... . the p e r s o n a e ' s views e x pressed of Brazil t hr ou gh the c h a nges m
... . . nf the p oems in Q u e s t i o n s of along this emoti onal c h r o n o l o g y --- — T i , .. ^*.-iaating the c o n t i n u a t i o n of this T r a v e l , it is also worth i n v e s t a
p r o c e s s in poem s publ i s h e d aft erw ards , w r i tten w hile she is still in Brazil and a fte r she goes back to the Unit ed States.
In the mid-1960s, Bish op p u b l i s h e s four more poem s about B r a z i 1 — "Rainy Season, S u b - T r o P i c * >” “Unde r the Window: Ouro Pr eto ," “Goi ng to the Baker y," a n d "Hou se 6 u e s t “- t h e last poe ms b e fore her d e f i n i t i v e move back to America. Two years befo r e her last trip to Brazil (197E), B i s h o p e d its with Emanuel Brasil An
Anth o l o g y of Twent i eth-Ce ntu rn f i r a j j ^ j m Po_e.tr*> inc luding her t r a n s l a t i o n s of Ca rlos Dr ummond de Andrade, V i n í c i u s de Moraes, and João Cabral de M e l l o Neto. A c c o r d i n g to Schwartz, this p u b l i c a t i o n was “an expr e s s i o n of C B i s h o p ' ^ g r a t i t u d e to Brazil for the literary life she could pu rsue C h e r e H , and her off ici al fa rewell" (“Eliz a b e t h Bishop and Brazil" 95> For some critics, the abse nce of any direct r e f e r e n c e to Brazil in G e o a r a ^ h a Ü I , publ i s h e d in 1967, c o n f i r m s this farewell, mar k i n g the d e f i n i t i v e rup tu re of the bonds between Bish o p ' s poetry anC* Brazil. This assumption,
n e v e r t h e l e s s , is questionable, as I shall d e m o n s t r a t e in the final c h a p t e r of this disser tati on.
Af ter its alleged ab sence in G e o g r a g h ^ Brazil "r eappea rs" as the th eme of two poems with very distinc t features-. "Sa ntarém" and "Pink Dog." Pu bl ishe d in the late 197® Sj short bef ore B i s h o p ' s death, these two poems regis ter her last i m p r ession s of Brazil. C o n s i d e r i n g the time in which the first and the last poem about Brazil were pub lished, it is p o s s i b l e to say that Brazil has been s i g n i f i c a n t l y present in Bishop's poetry for almost thre e decades.
The p u r pos e of this resea r c h is to trace the d e v e lopment of B ish op's p e r c e p t i o n of Brazil along the cour s e of these almost t hree deca d e s of poetry. As S c h w a r t z o b s e r v e s in regard to Quest ions of T r a v e l , the or der in which the poems are dis p o s e d does not c o r r e s p o n d to their actual c o m p o s i t i o n chron olo gy, but, rather, to an "e motional c h r o n o l o g y , ” from the p e r s p e c t i v e of the time Bishop has lived in Brazil. Co ns idering, therefore, not the actual c h r o n o l o g y of composi tio n, but obse r v i n g the c h a n g e s in the p e r s o n a e ' s vie ws along the co urse of the poem s as orde red in Quest ions of Travel , I will attempt to identi fy and as sess such changes. The same proc e d u r e will be app lied to the poe ms about Brazil p u blished afterwards.
Based on the assu m p t i o n s that the almost twenty y ears Bishop spent here had a significa nt in flu ence on her own p e r c e p t i o n of Brazil, and that the p oems she w r o t e at the time (and later) r e g i s t e r this expe rie nce , I will attempt to d e m o n s t r a t e that the p r o c e s s of chan g e in the p e r s o n a ' s view refle c t s the d e v elopment of the p o e t ' s p e r c e p t i o n of B r a H i l .
6
In or der to ac hie ve such p u r pose I will proce ed with an in- depth anal y s i s of the content of the relevant poems, re sor ting to s c h o l a r s h i p w h e n e v e r it can enrich or cla rif y the a n a l y s i s in question. I shall also make refe r e n c e s to Bishop's prose and n o n fiction w o r k — comments, letters, n o t e s — as well as to her u n p u b l i s h e d poetry and prose, to the extent that these pert ain to the analysis.
The c r i t e r i a for gro uping the poems in a ch apter or in a section inside a chapter were dete r m i n e d eith e r by s i m i l a r i t i e s of theme s or by s i m i l a r i t i e s of pe rspe cti ves . The poems were, thus, gath e r e d in four majo r units follo win g the path cover ed by almost three decades of poetry, from the first to the last acc o u n t s of Brazil .
In the first chapter, I will start by anal y s i n g the three open i n g p o e m s of Quest ions of T r a v e l , in wh ich the poet overt ly ide n t i f i e s hers e l f as a •’touri st" and a "tra v e l e r , " still an o u t s i d e o b s e r v e r p a r a d o x i c a l l y fru strated with and fasci nat ed by the first images of B r a z i l .
In the next chapter, the largest in n u m b e r of p oems to be analysed, I will in v estigate the dev e l o p m e n t of the poet 's p e r c e p t i o n as she merges into the Braz i l i a n reality. This process of imme rsion goes from the p e r c e p t i o n of "the othe r," in " S q u a t t e r ' s Chil d r e n " and " M a n u e l z i n h o , " the first B r azilian human types focused in Bi sho p ' s poetry, to the s ymb o l i c i d entifi cation with "the othe r" in the p e r s o n a of "The R i v e r m a n . " Two oth er issues will be brought to analy s i s in this chapter-, the sense of "home" and the r e s p o n s e s to social and poli tica l p r o b l e m s in vol vi ng Brazil at the time. These two sp heres c o r r e s p o n d to the levels in which
the poet rela t e s h e r s e l f to the small world, repr e s e n t e d by the do main of " h o m e , ” and to the oute r world.
In the third chapter my study will be c o n c e n t r a t e d in the group of poems from the late 1960s, p u b l i s h e d between Quest ions of Travel and Geo g r a p h y I I I . Th ese p oems are the last ones about Brazil p u b l i s h e d while Bisho p was still living in the coun try and reflect m o m e n t s of conflict d r a m a t i c a l l y unve i l e d in the v oice of the s t r a n g e c r e a t u r e s of "Ra iny- Seasonj S u b - T r o p i c s ."
Finally, I will concl u d e my a n a l y s i s with the poem "Santare m," a nost a l g i c n a rration of a trip down the Amazon, r e c o n s t r u c t e d years af ter Bishop had left Brazil. B e side "Pink Dog," this is lit era lly the last register of Brazil in Bish o p ' s poetry. In this final chapter I will also investigate the alle ged abse n c e of Brazil in Geog r a p h y II_I .
8
NOTES
E l i z a b e t h Bishop, u n p u b l i s h e d letter to Robert Lowell, 8 S e p t e m b e r 1948, E l izabeth Bishop Collec tio n, Hough ton Library, H a r vard Univers ity* Cambridge, Fold e r 3.
^ E l i z a b e t h Bishop, u n p u b l i s h e d lett er to Robert Lowell, 11 Jan uary 1949, E l izabeth Bishop Coll ect ion, Houghton Library, H a r vard Un ive rsit y, Cambridge, F o l d e r 4.
C H A R T E R I I
A F O R E I G N E R IN THE " S T R A N G E S T OF T H E A T R E S "
The first th ree poems of Quest ions of Travel — "Arrival at Sant o s , " "Brazil, January i, 1502," and "Q ue s t i o n s of Tra vel"-- c o n s t i t u t e a si gni fic ant segment in the p r o cess of E lizabet h B i s h o p ' s insight into the Braz i l i a n reality. The first, d e l i b e r a t e l y superfi cial and ironic, de pic ts the imme diate r e a c t i o n s of a newly arrived tourist d i s a p p o i n t e d at the first images of Brazil. In the second, "the to uri st" gives way to "the trave ler " and the observer, in ecst asy at the e x u b e r a n c e of na ture and sho win g the first nuances of histor ical and political awareness. R a t h e r than mere " q u e s t i o n s of tra vel," the third poem is a ques tio n of r e flecting on the very vali d i t y of this travel. Alth o u g h it was ori g i n a l l y p ublished four years be fore "Brazil, Jan uar y i, 1 5 0 2 , “ its final placement in the first ed ition of Quest ions of Travel must have been det e r m i n e d by what Lloyd S c h w a r t z id entifies as "an emoti ona l c h r o n o l o g y " ("Eliz abet h Bishop and Bra zil " 91). In " Q u estions of Travel ," rath er than concen t rating only on the landscape, the trav e l e r ' s eyes r e g i s t e r a mosaic of images right along the road. It is as if, after being intoxicated by the exotic beauty of nature, the poet starts to p e r c e i v e a more casual Brazil.
“Arrival at Santos," B i s h o p ' s first poetic account of Brazil, come s out a year after her arrival. It s t ar ts in a tone of di s s a t i s f a c t i o n , sh ow ing the o p p o s i t o n betwe en the p o et's e x p e c t a t i o n and the rea lity found:
Here is a coast; here is a harbor;
here, after a m e a g e r diet of horizon, is some s c e n e r y : i m p r a c tica lly sha pe d a n d - - w h o k n o w s ? — s e l f - p i t y i n g
mountains, sad and harsh ben eath their fr ivo lous greenery,
with a little ch ur ch on top of one. And wa rehouses, some of them painted a feeble pink, or blue,
and some tall, u n c e r t a i n palms. Oh, tourist, is this how this cou ntr y is going to a n swer you and your immodest d e m a n d s for a dif fer ent world, and a b e t t e r life, and c o m p l e t e c o m p r e h e n s i o n of both at last, and immediately,
a f t e r eighteen days of s u s p e n s i o n ? 1 (89)
The tourist who was in sea rch of ‘‘a different world, / and a bett e r life, and comp l e t e c o m p r e h e n s i o n / of both at last, and imm e d i a t e l y , " gets frustra ted at the flatnes s of the land s c a p e and t r a n s f e r s to it the tone of her own mood. Acco r d i n g to Lo rrie Goldenso hn, the use of l andscape “as the ou tward s e m b l a n c e of the self, as the m i rroring or external c o r r e l a t i v e of the self 's con d i t i o n " (Elizabet h B i s h o p : The B i o g r a p h y of a Poet rw 8). b e c o m e s "nearly a u t omatic" in B i s h o p ' s poetry, ma inl y from the B razilian poems on. The gesture of pointing to "the coa st, " "the harbo r , " and "some sce ner y" is in fact the moveme nt of the p o e t ' s eyes obse r v i n g a passive scenery indiffe rent to her expectati ons . The c o n s i d e r a b l e n u mber of a d j e c t i v e s that f o l l o w s — “mea ger," “i m p r a c t i c a l 1y s h a p e d , “ “s e l f - p i t y i n g , “ "sad and h a r s h , “ "fri v o l o u s , " "feeble," "tall," " u n c e r t a i n " — c o m p r e s s e d in the first two s t a n z a s r e i n f o r c e s the p r o j e c t i o n of the poet ' s self into the
l andscape throu gh its per s o n i f i c a t i o n . The po et's e x p e c t a t i o n s had deman d e d an immedia cy that the lan dscape was not able to fullfil.
Sudde n l y breaking the n osta lgic tone of her wo nderings, the poet sh ifts the focus of her atte n t i o n to the here and now:
Finis h your breakfast. The te nd e r is coming, a s t r a n g e and ancient c r a f t , flying a str an ge and
brill ian t r a g . So that' s the flag. I n ever saw it before.
I s o m e h o w n e ver thought of there being a flag,
but of c o urse th ere was, all along. And coins, I presume, and p ape r money; they remain to be seen. (89)
The d e s c r i p t i o n of the first sig ns of mo vement at the h a r b o r — "a stra n g e and ancient craft, flying a strange and brillian t r a g “-- still r e s o n a t e s the poet's impressions. W h a t e v e r is not part of an insipid and static lan ds cape is "ancient" and "stran ge." The only " b r i lliant" element, "the rag," becomes the object of the t ourist's i nev i t a b l e moc ke ry "So, that's the flag..." More pract ica l things "remain to be seen."
In the next lines the po em g ains a new pace as if, after a b rief stop, life had retur ned to its o rdi n a r y course:
And ging e r l y now we climb down the ladder backward, m yse l f and a fellow p a s s e n g e r named Miss Breen,
d e scending into the midst of t w e n t y - s i x fr eighters w aiti ng to be loaded with green co ff ee beans.
Please, boy, do be more careful with that boat hook! Watch out! Oh! It has caught Miss Bre en' s
skirt! There! Miss Breen is about seventy, a retired pol ice lieutenant, six feet tall,
with beautiful bright blue eyes and a kind expression. Her home, when she is at home, is in Glens Fall
s ,New York. There. We are settled.
The customs offi c i a l s will speak English, we hope, and leave us our bo u rbon and cigarettes. (89-90)
It is not acc iden tal that the r e f e r e n c e to Miss Breen is the only p o s i t i v e one in the whol e poem. Miss Breen c o r r e s p o n d s to the p r e s e n c e of the famili ar or the domestic. Helen U e n d l e r be lieves that the do mes ti c “be comes a c o m p u l s i o n that we take with us even to the most unp r o m i s i n g locations, wher e we busy o u r s e l v e s e s t a b l i s h i n g domes tic t r a n q u i l i t y . . . ’' <E4>. Bes ides sh aring the same language, "the bour bon and c i g a r e t t e s , " the two c o m p a n i o n s have some t h i n g else in common-, as habitual travelers, they both live in a sort of permane nt exile. Miss Breen's home, "when she is at home, is in Glens Fal ls. " Betwe en the introduction of Miss Breen and her descr ipt ion , the poet inserts the direct i m p e r a t i v e s — "Please, boy, do be more careful with that boat hook! / Watch o u t ! . . . " — not only to expr e s s concern about the carrier s' c a r e l e s s n e s s but also to e m p h a s i s e the immediacy of the scene. "Port s are nec essities, like post a g e stamps, or soap," says the poet al ready used to the tra nsi tional a t m o s p h e r e and disco mfor t of thes e p l a c e s which "seldom se em to care what imp res sio n they make “ Bonnie C o s t e l l o expl a i n s that "The trave l e r must accept the constant s l i p p a g e of reality, the sense of each "a rr ival" ma rking a point of d e p a r t u r e toward an elu s i v e d e s t i n a t i o n " (141). The idea of “s lipping" or "wasting away" is here m a t e r i a l i z e d in "the u n a s s e r t i v e colors of soap, or post a g e s t a m p s : “
Po rt s are neces sit ies, like p o s tage stamps, or soap, but they s e ldom seem to care what im pression they make, or, like this, only attempt, si nce it does not matter, the u n a s s e r t i v e co lors of soap, or p o s tage stam p s - -
wasting away like the former, sl ipping the way the latter do when we mail the letters we wr ote on the boat,
e i t h e r be ca u s e the glue here is very inferior or b e c a u s e of the h e a t . We leave S a n t o s at once; we are dri vi ng to the interior. (90)
The re asons for p o s t a g e s t am ps “s lipping" due to cheap glue or l ette rs n ever getting to their d e s t i n a t i o n are iro nic ally ev asive and typical of a colonia lis t view, showi ng the first symp t o m s of t h e ’i n evitable comp ari son s. In fact, from the very b eginning of the poem, the idea of c o m paris on is implied. The land sc ape that the two Ameri c a n t r a v e l e r s find here does not fit the p r i m i t i v e model that they proba b l y had in mind. For Costello, what they find instead are "signs of an a l t e r n a t i v e cult u r e to the ir own" (141), The impact of this " a l t e r n a t i v e cultu re" or the first images of an u n e x p e c t e d Brazil on p r e c o n c e i v e d ideas or e x p e c t a t i o n s is what sets the tone of d i s s a t i s f a c t i o n perv a d i n g the poem. Rema r k s such as "a rag," that is in fact "the flag", “the inferior glue", and "leave us our bour b o n and c i g a r e t t e s " are also e v i d e n c e s of cont r a s t s betw e e n the two cultures. The lines that separ a t e thes e two c u l t u r e s are here c lea r l y d e f in ed by what is “our" and, therefore, familiar, and what is “s t r a n g e . " At the end of the poem, the poet again s h ifts the focus of the n a r r a t i v e to more i mmediate facts. As David K a l s t o n e observes, "something more than g e o g r a p h i c a l " is implied in the lines-. "We leave Sant os at once; / we are driving to the in terior" (19) .
Several yea rs af ter the p u b l i c a t i o n of “Arrival at S ant o s , " Bisho p w r i t e s in an i n t r o ductory note for Black Be ans and D i a m o n d s . the book about Brazil she has n ever pub li shed :
I arriv ed in Brazil in late November, 1951. I came on a N o r w e g i a n freighter, 14 da ys out of Brooklyn, and re ached S a n t o s late one night. The
captai n had told me that I would smell cof fee twenty mi les out at sea, and he was right; we smelled it all the aft ernoon b e fore we en tered the harbor. There were twenty six f r e ight ers wai ti ng there to be loaded with coffee beans. The whole of that first night I sat up on the top deck wa tching the motions of the freighters, the play of lights, sweeping searc h-1 igh ts, ships' lights going to and fro, large and small craft of all sorts. It was a kind of wa ter- ballet m y s t e r i o u s and beautiful, b e c a u s e noth ing could be made out di stinctly. In the morning light I was s u rpris ed by the c o m p a r a t i v e m e a n n e s s and simp l i c i t y of the sce ne that had appeared so wild and strange at m i d n i g h t . ^
While the poem gives us a dayligh t a c c o u n t , the later note r e g i s t e r s an arrival at n i g h t . "Eig hteen days of susp e n s i o n " c o r r e s p o n d here to "14 days out of B r ooklyn." On the other hand, there were indeed “t w e n t y - s i x f r e ighter s C t h e r e D wait i n g to be loaded with C g r e e n l coff e e beans " and this is a typical e x a m p l e of B ish o p ' s concern with accura cy and details. If "Arrival at Santo s" had been wr itten "at night 1 i g h t ", the first i m p ressions of Brazil would d e f i n i t e l y have been d i f f e r e n t . The images of the f r e ighters being loaded and "the play of lights" at the h a r b o r would be a scenery much c l o s e r to the p o e t ’s "immodest dem a n d s for a differe nt world." Maybe b e c a u s e "nothing co uld be made out d i s t i n c t l y , ” the poet has pref e r r e d the reality of the scene of the next day. N evertheless, this “water—ballet m y s t e r i o u s and b e a u t i f u l ” has rema i n e d aliv e in the po et's mind for sixte en or s e v e n t e e n years until getting some space in a small note held today among other u n p u b l i s h e d pap ers at the Uas sar C o l l e g e Library.
If the mean n e s s and simp l i c i t y of the lands cap e in "Arrival at Sa ntos" has caused d i s a ppointm ent, the tropical e x u b e r a n c e of na tur e in "Brazil, Janua ry 1 , 1 5 0 8 “ is cele b r a t e d in grand style. L a n d s c a p e is seen as a tapestry in which the d i s p o s i t i o n of
different nuances, textu r e s and forms follo ws the immed iac y of the p o e t ' s visual perception:
Ja nuaries, N a ture gr eet s our eyes
exac tly as she must ha ve greeted theirs: every squa r e inch filling in with foli a ge-- big leaves, little leaves, and giant leaves, blue, blue-g ree n, and olive,
with occasi onal lighter v eins and edges, or a satin u n d e r l e a f turne d over;
m o n s t e r ferns
in sil v e r - g r a y relief,
and flowers, too, like giant w a t e r lilies up in the air-- up, rather, in the l e a v e s — purple, yellow, two yellows, pink,
rust red and greenish white;
solid but airy; fresh as if just fini she d and taken off the frame. (91)
In toxicated by the beauty of Nature, the Poet has d i f f i c u l t y in c o n c i l i a t i n g accu r a t e and deta i l e d d e s c r i p t i o n with her own s ense of wonder: "up in the air--up, rather, in the l e a v e s — / purple, yellow, two yell o w s . . . " The same feeling that the P o r t u g u e s e t ravelers e x p e r i e n c e d when first exp o s e d to the exotic ab andon of the Bra zil ian l andscape is here ide n tified with the p o e t ’s. “Our eyes" not only inc lude s the p e r s p e c t i v e of the poet but also suggests, in its plurality, the p e r s p e c t i v e of other for e i g n e r s who must have e x p e r i e n c e d a s i m ilar impact. In a fusion of present and past, “J a nuaries" supp o s e d l y c o m p r i s e the time January 1, 1502 (when a group of P o r t u g u e s e c o l o n i s t s first saw the G u a n a b a r a Bay, and m istaking it for a river, named it River of January) and the po et 's present time. In spi te of at least 450 y ears of all so rts of invasion, Natu r e e n d ures and still "greets our eye s." What st arts as a sub tle m e t a p h o r - - n a t u r e as femal e-- ga ins more evident i m p l i cations of male ag gressi on and female
retreat, as the poem develops. In regard to this subject, Robert Dale Pa rker observes,
...this is the only po em where Bishop s u b s c r i b e s to that fa mil ia r m e t a p h o r of a female Nature, a meta p h o r so c o m m o n p l a c e that it us ually goes unr e c o g n i s e d and taken for gra nted as natural f a c t . But it is not a natural f a c t . To see Na tu re as femi nin e is to o bjectify (to make an object of) femininity, which in the hetero sex ual world of this p a r t i c u l a r poem mak es the subject-- gr a m m a t i c a l l y the p e r c e i v e r of an acto r upon N a t u r e — masculine. (9£>
This vie wing of a Natu re as a tapestr y to be po ssessed, a c k n o w l e d g e d by most of the c r i t i c i s m on the poem, also has politic al imp l i c a t i o n s if one c o n s i d e r s sexual poss e s s i o n in terms of colonial invasion. The visual mo vement s ugges ted by the d e s c r i p t i o n of Natu re itself imp lies a searc h for depth, ac cor ding to Costello, "somet hin g within or behind the sur fac e which we might poss e s s " (145). She also expl a i n s that what sta rts as a frontal p i c t u r e or a d e s c r i p t i o n of the fo regroun d g radua lly gains depth as it move s to the b a ckgroun d follo win g the b e h o l d e r ' s erotic desi r e to p o s s e s s the landscape.
A b l u e - w h i t e sky, a si mple web, backing for feathery detail:
brief arcs, a pale green broke n wheel, a few palms, swarthy, squat, but delicate; and perching there in profile, beaks agape, the big symb oli c birds keep quiet,
each sh owing only half his pu ff ed and padded, p u r e - c o l o r e d or spo tte d breast.
Still in the foregr oun d there is Sin: five sooty dr agons near some massy rocks.
The rocks are worked with lichens, grey mo on b u r s t s spla t t e r e d and overlapping,
threat ene d from u n der neath by moss in lovely h e l l - g r e e n flames,
attacked above
by s e a l i n g - 1 a d d e r vines, oblique and neat,
The static p r e s e n c e of "the big symbolic b i r d s ” s h o wing "only h a l f ” their body is a symboli c t r a n s i t i o n to the image of Sin that come s n e H t . It s u g g e s t s the idea of compl ici ty, sinc e the bir ds are present and quiet; a sort of " h a l f - w i t n e s s e s " for they cannot be seen entirel y. Sin, here r e p r e s e n t e d by the s i n i s t e r figure of "the five sooty dragons", is also implicitly linked to the last line of this s e g m e n t — “one leaf yes and one leaf no." For Go lde nso hn, this is an "implicit game of sexual c o n s e n t — derived, wi thdrawn, derived, w i t h d r a w n " (El izabeth Bishop -. The Biog r a p h y of. a Poetry 202)... The reader can only p e r c e i v e the irony s u g g e s t e d in this initial p i c ture of Sin when the poet abrupt ly t r a n s f o r m s the dr agons into mere lizards:
The liz ards scarce ly breathe; all eyes are on the smaller, female one, back-to, her wicked tail s traigth up and over, red as red-hot wire.
To go back to V e n d l e r ' s arti c l e on " d o m e s t i c a t i o n and d o m e s t i c i t y , " this p r o c e s s of m i n i a t u r i z i n g d r a g o n s into liz ards can also be
i nt e r p r e t e d as an attempt to d o m e s t i c a t e what is strange.
O b s e r v i n g the lizards in heat had been in fact a past i m e Bis hop was very much used to in her hou se in Petrdpo lis . In Novemb er, 1959, she w r ites to Aunt G r a c e :
There has just been a quick rain and hail storm with the sun shin ing at the same t i m e — e v e rything looks dazzling now and the li zards have start ed to come out again. W atching the lizards' love-mak ing is one of our quiet s p o r t s h e r e ! — the male c h ases the female, bob bin g his head up and down and puff ing his throat in and out like a b a l o o n — he is usua lly much larger and much uglier. The female runs ahead and if
3.8
she is feeling fr iendly she rai ses her tail up over her back like a w i r e — it is bright red, almost ne on- red, underne ath. He ha rdly ever seems to ca tch up with her, t h o u g h , — S o m e t i m e s the cat will p u r s u e a huge one right throug h the living- r o o m — usu all y when we have sque a m i s h lady guests, who shriek — I think To bias does it on purpose, r e a l l y . ^
The femal e li zard's attitude, whic h in the poem is of ready acce pta nce , here is c o n d i t i o n e d by "if she is feeling frien dly " Thus, the m a l e ' s sed ucing game, c o m p l e t e l y ignored in the poem, b e c o m e s e ntirely dependent on the femal e's will. The mal e's d i s a d v a n t a g e in this sort of game is s u g g e s t i v e l y ex pr essed in the po em by his passi ve ness : "The lizards scarcely breathe; all ey es / are on the smaller, female one ... " The d i f f e r e n c e in size, which, in the poem may be read as a sign of inferiority, is also ironic all y rever sed in the text of the lett e r above. Being larger is not a qu estion of hav ing more power but of having an inferio r plas tic beauty. Both in the letter and in the poem the m a le's ach i e v e m e n t is not resol ved even when the poet shif ts the focus from the lizards to the Ch ris tian s, in pursuit of the little Indi ans “retr eati ng, alwa ys retreating.. .".
Just so the Christia ns, hard as nails, tiny as nails, and glinting,
in creak ing armor, came and found it all, not
unfamiliar-no lover's walks, unfamiliar-no bowers,
no c h e r r i e s to be picked, no lute music, but c o r r e s p o n d i n g , n everthele ss,
to an old d r eam of weal th and luxury
already out of s t yle when they left h o m e — wealth, plus a b r a n d - n e w pleasure.
Dir ectl y after Mass, hu mming perhaps L ' Homm e ar mé or som e such tune,
they ripped away into the hang i n g fabric, each out to catch an Indian for h i m s e l f —
those m addening little women who kept calling, calling to each ot her (or had the bi rds waked up?) and retreating, always r e t r e a t i n g behind it. (9£)
In c o n f r o n t i n g the new world, the e x p l o r e r s find it “not unfamil iar : /... but c o r r e s p o n d i n g ... / to an old d ream of wea lth and luxury." As with “Arrival at Santos," the e x p e c t a t i o n s for a di fferent wo rld are not fulfilled. Instead of seei ng some t h i n g new, the invad ers view Nature with eyes in the past, t r a n s f e r r i n g to it old E uro p e a n mod el s or famil iar images. What is left is "an old dream... al ready out of st yle." For Parker, even the 'brand-new pl easu re' s uggested by the pursuit of the Indians is not actua lly new. He p o ints out that: "Though the pl ea s u r e may be new in the sense of its easy avai lab ilit y, they res pon d to it in an old way. For they see the Indians as slaves and c o n c u b i n e s ready for the P i c k i n g " (93-94).
When the poem gets to its final s cen e with the e x p l o r e r s coming "d ire ctly a fter Mass" to rape the Indians, the irony implied in the p o e t ' s a d d r e s s i n g them as " C h r i s t i a n s " beco m e s more evident. In the name of C h r i s t i a n i t y and all the good int e n t i o n s that " j u s t i f y ” the purp o s e s of c o l o n i zat ion, the e x p l o r e r s rape the women as they rape the landscape. But, u n like what h a p p e n s behin d the s c en es in history, the e x p l o r e r s in the poem do not reach “t hose m a ddening little women" who keep on retreating. Rath e r than be ing an attitu de of defeat, "re t r e a t i n g " is a way of enduring. Li ke the women, N a ture al so endures.
A very s i m ilar image of Indian women as enduring m i n i a t u r e s is present in C l a rice L i s p e c t o r ' s “The Smal lest Woman in the World" wh ich Bishop tra n s l a t e d by the time "Brazil, Ja nuary i, 1 5 0 2 “ was written. The woman in question in L i s p e c t o r ' s story is a pigmy, “s e v e n t e e n and t h r e e - q u a r t e r inches high, full-grown, black,
s i l e n t . " Belo n g i n g to a tribe of p i g m i e s in Equ ato rial Af rica c o n s t a n t l y t h rea tened by a n o t h e r tri be that hunt them as preys,
“L i t t l e Flo wer" is found by a Fren ch explorer:
. . . the great threat to the L i k o u a l a s is the s a vage Bantus, a threat that s u r r o u n d s th em in the silent air, like the dawn of battle. The Bantus hunts them with nets, like monkeys. And eat them. Like that: they catch them in nets and EAT them. The tiny race, retre ati ng, a l ways retreat ing , has fini she d hidin g away in the heart of Africa, where the lucky e x p l o r e r d i s c o v e r e d it.4
The atti t u d e of survival by re trea tin g, alw ays retreat ing , is the same in both texts. As some c r i t i c s propose, to accept the p o et's i de n t i f i c a t i o n with the c o n q u i s t a d o r s is to deny her sympathy with these little wo men and her d e s p i s e for the a g r e s s o r , a posi t i o n that is impl ici tly p r i v i l e g e d by the de ve lopment of the act io n of the poem itself. As Schwartz: observe s, what seem s more p l a u s i b l e to c o n s i d e r is not the i d e n t i f i c a t i o n with the c o n q uerors' "old d ream of weal th and luxury" but, rather, the u n d e r s t a n d i n g of the de sire for "bra nd new p lea s u r e " ("Eliza bet h Bishop and Brazil" 91). Even so, this kind of empat hy can only be taken for gra nte d impli cit ly and ironically. On the other hand, e m p h a s i z i n g a one- s i d e d feminist readi ng of the poem is also probl ematic. Althou gh the female p r e s e n c e is p r i v i l e g e d by the de v elopment of the action and the male a gression d e scri bed in sub tle to nes of mockery, the poet kee ps her i m p a r t iality as a mere observer. In this r e s p e c t , G o l d e n s o h n poin ts out that: "the poem resi sts a t o o - i n s i s t e n t 1y framed ideology: an ide ntifiable, co n t r o l l i n g persp ec tive , coming from a spea k e r clearly and co n t i n u o u s l y in comm and of the p o em's o p i n i o n s seem to be m i s s i n g “
(El izabeth Bishop : The Biog raphy of a Poetr y 199) .
If the poe t's p e r s p e c t i v e is not cl early identifiable, her "power of r e t i c e n c e / ' t o use O c t a v i o P az's famous words ref e r r i n g to B i s h o p ' s poetry, can be d etected be tw e e n the lines, eme rging in sati r e against the viol e n c e of the col o n i a l i s t occupati on. Nothing could be more su btle than going back to the past and taking off the frame h i storical characters, to rep res ent in the fictional world of poe tr y the figur es of "the o p p r e s s o r " and "the oppr e s s e d . " In doing so,t h e poet lets the r e a d e r a c k n o w l e d g e this fact, whether b e l o n g i n g only to the past or not. In the same way, a cho ice that at first sight seems quite o b v i o u s — the g e nd er ide n t i f i c a t i o n of o p p r e s s o r and o p p r e s s e d - - b e c o m e s more el usive and intriguing, as the poe m develops. Nature, lizards, or "those m a d d e n i n g little wome n," are c h a r a c t e r s with di ff eren t features and roles in the poem, who cannot be reduc ed to a s i ngle l a b e l . No m a t t e r what theo ry one has in mind when readi ng the poem, the poet's p e r s p e c t i v e remains oblique; what is left to inter pret at ion is the voice of actio n itself.
In spite of showin g the first e v i d e n c e s of p ol it ical a w areness or his torical concern, the poet is still a deta c h e d obse r v e r h a n d l i n g her c h a r a c t e r s in unreal s c e n e r i e s . The tourist d i s a p p o i n t e d at the first real images of Brazil searches in the past a lands cap e that can "greet" her eyes. It is still the fan tas tic that calls her att ention. More casual images "remain to be seen."
A fte r the m e a g e r n e s s of the l andscape in "Arrival at San tos" and its a b u n d a n c e in "Brazil, Janua ry 1, 150E," the poet of "Que s t i o n s of “Tra vel" seems sati ated of sce nery and ready to
p e r c e i v e what else there is in “this strange st of t h e a t r e s . “ The op ening of the poem reflec ts this idea of saturation:
The re are too many w a t e r f a l l s here; the crow ded s t r eams hurry too rapidly down the sea,
and the pres s u r e of so many clouds on the m o u n t a i n t o p s makes them spill over the sides in soft s l o w - m o t i o n , turn ing to w a t e r f a l l s under our very eyes.
--For it those streaks, those mile-long, shiny, tearstains, aren't w a t e r f a l l s yet,
in a quick age or so, as ages go here, they probably will be.
But if the stre a m s and c l o u d s keep travelling, travel 1 i n g ,
the m o u n t a i n s look like the hulls of capsized ships, sli m e - h u n g and barnacled. (93)
What d i s t u r b s the o b s e r v e r is not only the e x cess of l a ndscape but also the temporal inst a b i l i t y d e t e r m i n e d by a perm anent state of mutation. The speed in this flux of m utation leads the poet to w i t n e s s chan g e s in process: "and the p r e s s u r e of so many clo uds on the m o u n t a i n t o p s / m akes them spill over the si des in soft slow- motion, / turning to w a t e r f a l l s u n d e r our very e y e s . “ Futu r e c h a n g e s also b e co me p r e d i c t a b l e as if the poet ' s imagination tried to follow the flux of na ture itself. Even the m o u n t a i n s are not stat ic but subject to the movement of “the st reams and cloud s."
In a letter to James Merrill, Bishop e x p r e s s e s this same idea of l and scape in excess:
You say you imagine me in a " Rouss eau jungle" - well, it is as bea uti ful as one, I think, but a lot spar s e r and rougher, and whe re I live, 50 miles or so from Rio, much more p e r p e n d i c u l a r . Li ke the "Sugar Loaf" in Rio h a r b o r only a great many of them, much bigger, inland a w a y s — with clouds spilli ng over the tops sometimes, or w a t e r f a l l s coming and going acco r d i n g to the w e a the r (there's
an awful lot of w e a t h e r here). Thin g s are very much out of scale, too, like a R o u s s e a u — or out of our scale, that i s ...*
He re the poet reveals the p a r a m e t e r s for her o pe ni ng remarks: "Thi ngs are very much out of scale... or out of our scale ." It is too much for "her" scale or for the s cal e of any fo rei gner poss i b l y s u b m i t t e d to the same kind of ex per ienc e. Again e x p e c t a t i o n and real ity are in conflict. W hi le in "Arrival at Sa ntos" the land s c a p e is not en ough to fulfill her demands, in "Que s t i o n s of Tra vel " it "spills over" the limits of her expe ctat ion .
The secon d s t a n z a be gins with an imperative, appa r e n t l y i n t e r r u p t i n g the p o et's i n t e raction with the external world. This is a sig n i f i c a n t moment of r e f l e c t i o n in which, for the first time, the poet q uestions her quest:
Think of the long trip home.
Should we have staye d at home and thought of here? W here sh ould we be to da y?
Is it right to be wat c h i n g s t r a n g e r s in a play in this strangest of t h e a t r e s ?
What c h i l d i s h n e s s is it that w hile there's a brea th of 1 ife in our bodies, we are d e t e r m i n e d to rush
to see the sun the other way arou nd?
The tiniest green h u m m i n g b i r d in the worl d ? To star e at some i n e x p l i c a b l e old stonework, i n e x p l i c a b l e and impenetrable,
at any view,
in stan tly seen and always, alw ays d e l i g h t f u l ? Oh, must we drea m our drea ms
and have them, too? And have we room
for one more folded sunset, still qu ite warm? (93)
C o s t e l l o i d entifies in the b e g i n n i n g of this s t a n z a four di ffer ent aspects of the poet ' s quest: “the quest for the exo tic ('strangest of th eatres'), for the ne w p e r s p e c t i v e ('the sun the
o t h e r way r o u n d ' ), -for the u n i q u e ('the tiniest green h um m i n g b i r d ' ) , and for the m y s t e r i o u s ( ‘inex p l i c a b l e old s t o n e w o r k ' ) . " She c o n s i d e r s the m " p r e s y m b o l i c " or " p o s t s y m b o l i c " and void of any s t r u c t u r e or pattern (155). Nev ertheless, c o n s i d e r i n g t hese a s p e c t s - - exoctic, new, unique, m y s t e r i o u s — as opposed to ano t h e r kind of quest u n d e r l y i n g the poem, that is, the quest for a home, it is poss i b l e to e s t a b l i s h a pattern. "Should we h ave stayed at home and thought of here?", qu es tion s the traveler. What is in fact "here" if ho me turns out at the end of the poem to be "whe r e v e r . " “Here," this amb iv alent and t e m p o r a r y home, is for the poet the "s trangest of t h e a t r e s . " In some corner, beh ind the sc ene s or in the audience, the poe t's role is to obse r v e 'strangers in a play.' Her viewi ng peop l e like s t r a n g e r s is a sort of s e l f refl e c t i o n of her cond i t i o n as a foreigner.
This s t anza finishes with no a n s w e r but with some ques tions to be tested: "What c h i l d i s h n e s s is it that while ther e's a bre ath of life / in our bodies, we are d e t e r m i n e d to rush / to see the sun the o t h e r way around?" Are the p o et's m o t ives a question of c h i l d i s h n e s s ? Or mere plea s u r e for the s ensation of d i s c o v e r y ? Or would it be for the plea s u r e of "the instant ly seen and always, alw ays d e l i g h t f u l ? " Maybe it would be the des ire for "p oss essing" dre ams even taking the risk of losing them once turned into reality. The next segment of the poem marks a shift from the q u e s tioning on the m o t ives of the travel to a que stio ni ng on what would have been lost if this travel had not happened:
But sure ly it would have been a pity
not to ha ve seen the tr ees along this road, really e x a g g e r a t e d in thei r beauty,
like noble pantomirnists, robed in pink.
--Not to have had to stop for gas and heard the sad, two-noted, woode n tune
of d i s p a r a t e wooden clogs c a r e l e s s l y clackin g over
a g r e a s e - s t a i n e d f i l l i n g - s t a t i o n floor.
(In anot h e r coun try the clogs would all be tested. Each pair there would have identical pitch.)
--A pity not to have heard
the other, less p r i m i t i v e music of the fat brown bird who si ngs above the broken gasol i n e pump
in a b a mboo church of Jesuit baroque: three towers, five s i lver crosses. --Yes, a pity not to have pondered, blur r ' d l y and i n c o n c 1 u s i v e l y ,
on what conn e c t i o n can exist For c e n t u r i e s bet we en the crudest wooden fo otwear
and, careful and finicky,
the whittled fan tas ies of the wooden cages. --And never to have had to listen to rain so much like p o l i t icians' speeches:
two hour s of u n r e l e n t i n g ora tor y and then a sudden golden silen ce
in wh ich the trav e l l e r takes a notebook... (93-94)
In the begi n n i n g of this third stanza, thing s are still "out of scale": the trees along the road look "re ally e x a g g e r a t e d in thei r beau t y . " In co mparing them to " p a n t o m i m i s t s " the poet brin gs back the idea of t h e a t r i c a l i t y which in the former st anza a p p ears linked to p e ople and to her own relations hip , as a foreigner, with "this strangest of the atres." The images depi cte d along the road from this moment on con s t i t u t e what G i l b e r t o F r eyre would call a more a uthentic Brazil. R eferring to what could be c o n s i d e r e d a s t e r e o t y p e d visio n of Brazil, Frey r e sta tes that
Too many foreign o b s e r v e r s tend to see only what is m e t r o p o l i t a n or pict uresque, what is pr o g r e s s i v e or archaic: São Pa ulo or Rio, naked sa v ages or the Amazon River. But it is bet wee n these ant a g o n i s t i c e x t r e m e s that the real Brazil lies...
Altho u g h this mosai c of images can still seem p i c t u r e s q u e to the t r a v e l e r ' s eyes, it is the first samp le of a domes tic Brazil, easil y r e c o g n i z a b l e between the " a n t a g o n i s t i c e xtremes" ment i o n e d by F r e y r e .
The comp a r i s o n bet wee n the " d i s p a r a t e wooden clogs " and the clo gs of a n o t h e r country shows a differ ent kind of irony. Instead of praising the tec h nology that would give the foreign clo gs an “identical pi tch," the poet is ironi cal ly using it as a c o u n t erpoi nt for the c r a f t s m a n s h i p of the ‘‘home" clogs. Being di fferent is here a question of musical advantage: at least the “home" clog s have two tunes. G r a d u a l l y in the poe m the images b e c o m e more famili ar and the so unds "less p r i m i t i v e . " It is, then, the moment for the trav e l e r to p o n d e r on the c o m p l e x i t y of this live culture, yet "blurr' dly and i n c o n c l u s i v e l y . " For Th omas J. Travisano, “The i n t ricacies of this c u l t u r e (as the son gbi rds ' c ages attest) are not the i n t r icacies of c o m m e r c e or tech n o l o g y but the i n t r i c a c i e s of d e v o t i o n — to iconography, tradition, and c r a f t s m a n s h i p “ (144). T r a v i s a n o c o n c l u d e s that the e x p e r i e n c e of bein g expo s e d to this sort of c u l t u r e could n ever be conveyed by s i mple imagination (144). This is exac tly the conc l u s i o n that the t r a v e l e r arri v e s at when, in a moment of silence or of inner travel, she takes a notebook and writes:
"Is it lack of i m a g ination that m a kes us come to im agined places, not just stay at home?
Or could Pascal have not been e n t i r e l y right about just sitt ing qui etly in one's room? Continent, city, country, society:
the c h o i c e is neve r wide and never free.
And here, or there... No. Should we have stayed at home, w h e r e v e r that may be? (94)
The poem itself answers the last question and, as Trav i s a n o observes, Bis hop's personal c h oice of t raveling and rema i n i n g in Brazil over "just sit ting quietly in one's room" r eit e r a t e s the answ e r < 145).
Al though the first step s towar d the perc e p t i o n of images of a mo re auth e n t i c Brazil have d ecidedly been taken in " Q u estio ns of Travel," in this group of poems, the p o e t ' s p e r s p e c t i v e rem ain s intim ate ly asso c i a t e d with her own id entifi c a t i o n as a "touri st" and a "tra v e l e r . " The p r e d o m i n a n c e of lan dscape d e s c r i p t i o n s is proba b l y the result of the impact that Br azilian tropical nature must have caused in the poet. Ac co r d i n g to Freyre, this would be a natural tend e n c y that fo reigners us ually have in looking for the pictur esq ue. A n o ther aspect to be oberved in these first three poems about Brazil is the almost c o m p l e t e absence of Bra zilian human types. If it were not for the a n o n y m o u s "boy" of "Arrival at Santos," "those madd e n i n g little women" brought from the past in "Brazil, Janu ary 1 , 1 5 0 2 ”, the impersonal " s t r angers" or the redu c t i o n of "human" to the n a m e l e s s sound of "wooden clogs" in "Que s t i o n s of Trav el, " Brazil would be not only the "s tran gest" but the "em ptiest" of theatres. What is important to point out is not the se nse of quantity that these c h a r a c t e r s represent but the sense of absence implied in their lack of identity. The lens through which the o b s e r v e r views this impersonal p o p ulati on may as well be reversed to the vision of her own impersonal cond i t i o n as a f o r e i g n e r .
The next group of poem s about Brazil mo ves towards a more g e n u i n e vision of both c h a r a c t e r s and s c e n e r y . The richn e s s of
images and the variety of th emes is a c o n s e q u e n c e of the poe t's e x p o s u r e to the different featu res of Braz i l i a n reality. For Gold ens ohn , Bish o p ' s e x p e r i e n c e in Brazil b r ings about significant chan g e s in her poetry. G o l d e n s o h n s ubm i t s that
Duri ng these ye ars even her l a ndscapes gained in human rather than animal population, as a d e s c r i p t i o n col ore d more and more by the waki ng real and less and less by the fant a s t i c a l l y dr eamed began to take in urban and v i l l a g e life... (Eliz a b e t h Bishop : The Biog r a p h y of a Po etry P r e f a c e . xi)
This p r o cess of grow th in Bisho p ' s po etry follows the developm ent of her own perc e p t i o n of Brazil. The tourist or the trav e l e r g r a d u a l l y b e c o m e s a kind of poeti c m e d i a t o r conc e r n e d with pas sin g to the reade rs the most accu r a t e images of Brazil.
NOTES
All qu otations of Eliz a b e t h Bish o p ' s p ublish ed poet ry are taken from El izabeth Bishop : The Cqitip lete Po ems ■ 192 7-1979 (New York: Farrar, Strau s & Giroux, 1983).
^ This passa ge is part of B ish o p ' s notes meant for the book about Brasil that she wanted to publish, aft er the c o n t r o versial ed iti on of B r a z i 1 by Time & Life, in which the edit o r s left out a good deal of material. The book Bishop had in mind, c e r t a i n l y a more auth e n t i c picture of Brazil, would be ent itle d B1ack Bea ns and D i a m o n d s . All c i tations of Bish o p ' s u n p u b l i s h e d poetry and prose are taken from her special c o l l e c t i o n held by the Vass a r Co llege Library, in Po ugh kee psi e, New York. The quota tio n in question b e l o n g s to the series B r a z i 1 , Box 36, F o lder 574.
3 E lizabeth Bishop, u n p u b l i s h e e d letter to Aunt Grace CBowers], 12 N o v e m b e r 1959, Eliz a b e t h Bishop Collect ion , Va ss ar C o l l e g e Library, Poug hk ee psi e, Box 18, F o lder 255.
4 This quota tio n is taken from Bisho p ' s o r i g i n a l s a wkwardly placed, as p u blished material, under Poetry. Eliz a b e t h Bishop Coll ect ion , Uass a r C o l lege Library, Pcmghk e e p s i e , Box 31, F o lder 477 .
^ E l i z a b e t h Bishop, u n p u b l i s h e d letter to James Merrill, 1 March 1955, E lizabeth Bishop Col lec tio n, U a ssar C o l l e g e Library, P oug hkeepsie, Box 20, F o lder 279.
C H A P T E R III
F R O M P E R C E P T I O N OF TO
I D E N T I F I C A T I O N W I T H "THE OT HER **
The next two poems in Quest ions of T r a v e l - - “Squat ter's C h i l d r e n ” and " M a n u e l z i n h o " - - m a r k a sensi b l e shift in the p e r s o n a ' s view, rep r e s e n t e d by the p e r c e p t i o n of "the oth er. " The two "spe c k l i k e " ch ild ren and M a n u e l z i n h o are the first Braz i l i a n human types to be close ly obser ved in Bish o p ' s poetry. In these poems, the scenery, which so far had been the chief protago nis t, move s to the backgro und. It is as if, aft er wor kin g e x t e n s i v e l y on the sc enery of this "strangest of thea t r e s , " it is e v e n t u a l l y time to s potl igh t the act o r's p e r f o r m a n c e .
"E lect ric al Storm" and "Song for the Rainy Season," the two o the r poe ms that follow, show a c h ange of focus det e r m i n e d by a spatial r e a s o n : both poems are rest r i c t e d to the limits of the h ouse or the domain of "home." Whi thin these limits it is p o s s i b l e to ob s erve the poe t's rela t i o n s h i p with her pr ivat e w o r l d - - a p a r t i c u l a r l y "do mes tic" B r a z i l — and to what extent the sense of home is linked to this re lat ion ship .
A n o t h e r signifi can t featur e in this pr ocess of p e r c e p t i o n of Brazil is the con cer n with "the ot her." Al ready m a n i f e s t e d in " S q u a t t e r ' s C h i ldren," the po et' s interest in social and political p r o b l e m s beco m e s more v i s ible after the 1950s. "The Bu rglar of B a bylon," the last in the set of po ems gather ed in the Brazil
