RECOGNITION OF HUMAN IDENTITIES THROUGH ANIMALS IN SELECTIONS OF ELIZABETH BISHOP’S POEMS

Abstract

Animals or the animal world has been the source of inspiration for many English as well as American poets and thereby assisted in shaping their attitudes toward life. In fact, animals are used for different purposes in poetry. Some poets may use animals to represent power or strength, while others may see in them as outstanding marks for beauty and love. However, as individuals of the post war generation, modern poets’ outlook to animals is as distinctive as their attitude to any other issue in their poems. In other words, while the poets of the previous ages tackled the outer or physical shapes of the animals, modern poets manipulated animals for the analysis of the defects or the weaknesses of modern man. The modern American poet Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), employs animals in her poetry for the recognition of human identities. This is due to the poet’s undergoing of certain unacceptable habits and bitter experiences as her struggling with asthma, alcoholism and lesbianism. Such acts made the poet shield away from believing the dominance of humans over animals and think about an absolute equality between them. However, the unbearable sufferings of modern man in the twentieth century may contribute in forming the poet’s attitudes which conform to some of the theories of the previous centuries that claim equality between man and animals. This paper aims at examining Elizabeth Bishop’s depiction of animals and its purposes. Meanwhile it focuses on the aspects of similarity and difference between humans and animals. This is followed by an investigation of the modernists’ views, and the purpose of their manipulation of animals. It sheds light on certain occasions that the poet presents for recognizing human identities via animals. This is achieved through analyzing some poems in which modern man’s defects and miseries are portrayed.