Post #2870740

2026-04-27 15:32 UTC

Elizabeth Bishop has been keeping me poetry'd the last bit of time, just one here and there from her collected works. It's raining right now and so "a cold spring" seemed apt. I love the four instances of "your" in this poem because they say so much, although that so much varies depending on the flicker of the light. They are possessives --- but as such they feel almost desperate. For the world described, and the poem doing the describing, would function just fine without them. And yet, that's also what they do: they put the bigness and distance of the world in perspective and proximity. So while the world might do just fine without them, the poem, on the other hand, would certainly *not* be the same poem without them. Drop four words and something would be lost.

Replies (2)

@NearerAndFarther@techhub.social 2026-04-27 15:54

Also, should probably start a list of good weather and season poems. Bishop must have had one such list going. The epitaph to this one is from Hopkins: "Nothing is so beautiful as spring" -- another banger of a poem (attached). ((lost power literally as I was pressing send on this -- big tree down across the street, struck straight away by lightning. eventful 5 minutes! had to fire up the hotspot.)) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51002/spring-56d22e75d65bd

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@miksimum@jawns.club 2026-04-28 04:54

@NearerAndFarther@techhub.social What a great detail -- those four your's are the only hint about the poem's intended addressee, which is a subtle but very deep part of what makes it so personal and enigmatic. Thanks for the insight!

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