The Prodigal

1. The Prodigal Elizabeth Bishop

2. Form • Double Sonnet (2 Stanzas of 14 Lines each) • It does not conform to a regular rhyming scheme. What does this say about Bishop’s attitude or this particular poem? • The last two lines do not end in a rhyming couplet as is usually the case with a sonnet – what is the purpose of this?

3. Consider this… • Bishop dramatizes the time before the prodigal returns home rather than the homecoming itself. • Why do you think she does this?

4. The brown enormous odor he lived by was too close, with its breathing and thick hair, for him to judge. The floor was rotten; the sty was plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dung. Light-lashed, self-righteous, above moving snouts, the pigs' eyes followed him, a cheerful stare-- even to the sow that always ate her young-- till, sickening, he leaned to scratch her head. But sometimes mornings after drinking bouts (he hid the pints behind the two-by-fours), the sunrise glazed the barnyard mud with red the burning puddles seemed to reassure. And then he thought he almost might endure his exile yet another year or more.

5. The brown enormous odor he lived by was too close, with its breathing and thick hair, for him to judge. The floor was rotten; the sty was plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dung. Light-lashed, self-righteous, above moving snouts, the pigs' eyes followed him, a cheerful stare-- even to the sow that always ate her young-- till, sickening, he leaned to scratch her head. But sometimes mornings after drinking bouts (he hid the pints behind the two-by-fours), the sunrise glazed the barnyard mud with red the burning puddles seemed to reassure. And then he thought he almost might endure his exile yet another year or more.

6. But evenings the first star came to warn. The farmer whom he worked for came at dark to shut the cows and horses in the barn beneath their overhanging clouds of hay, with pitchforks, faint forked lightnings, catching light, safe and companionable as in the Ark. The pigs stuck out their little feet and snored. The lantern--like the sun, going away-- laid on the mud a pacing aureole. Carrying a bucket along a slimy board, he felt the bats' uncertain staggering flight, his shuddering insights, beyond his control, touching him. But it took him a long time finally to make up his mind to go home.

7. But evenings the first star came to warn. The farmer whom he worked for came at dark to shut the cows and horses in the barn beneath their overhanging clouds of hay, with pitchforks, faint forked lightnings, catching light, safe and companionable as in the Ark. The pigs stuck out their little feet and snored. The lantern--like the sun, going away-- laid on the mud a pacing aureole. Carrying a bucket along a slimy board, he felt the bats' uncertain staggering flight, his shuddering insights, beyond his control, touching him. But it took him a long time finally to make up his mind to go home.

8. Imagery • Class Task: • ‘Bishop is a poet of rich and detailed description’ Pick two images that this poem creates in your mind and discuss how Bishop conveys these images to good effect.

9. “brown enormous odor” • What does this suggest? • What is wrong with this phrase? • Bishop uses incorrect syntax in the first line. What is the purpose of this? Is there a purpose? • Synaesthesia –

10. Metaphor • The barn’s hayloft is compared to ‘clouds’

11. ‘home’…. What is the significance of isolating the last word of the poem?

12. Themes • Man & Nature: The connection between the prodigal and the ‘bats uncertain staggering flight’ • Addiction: An honest and moving portrayal of an addict • Exile – Homelessness. The journey, decision to return home is not an easy one to make • Moments of awareness: ‘bats uncertain staggering flight’