Transcript First Death in Nova Scotia

*
Elizabeth Bishop
*Published in her early fifties
*Recounts the extraordinary vivid memory
of her cousins death
*Written in the past tense, we visualise
the events surrounding Arthurs death
through a child’s eyes
*
Stanza 1 & 2
Setting:
‘Cold’: signifying death
-
’cold, cold parlor’
What is the purpose of the
repetition here?
‘Parlor’ suggests that
a family
occasion/event is
taking place
Focus shifts to the the
stuffed loon:
Why?
What does this tell us
about the mind-set of the
poet?
Comparisons can be drawn
to Arthur later on ‘deep
and white…red glass’
Stanza 3 & 4
Bishop comes face to
face with death, in the
form of ‘A little frosted
cake…frozen lake’
‘Jack frost has started to
paint him’ but in the end
‘left him white’
Metaphor to
emphasises
Arthurs youth
‘I was lifted up’
shows how young
Bishop was
Bishop explains how
she tried to make
sense of the situation
when she was child
Stanza 5
‘But how could Arthur
go,
clutching his tiny lily’
She realises he is
incapable of
opening his eyes
Even if he could
wake up he is to
young to travel to
the Kings court alone
Theme Moment of Awareness
•Young girl unaware of death becomes
uncomfortable with the reality of
death
Theme Childhood
•Captures the childhood mentality of
her young speaker
•Childhood innocence is displayed
several times