Bishop, Wright and Hass

“Filling Station” by Elizabeth Bishop

This poem was definitely successful in illustrating a very specific setting. So much so that it becomes the focus of the poem. The gas station, or “filling station” that Elizabeth Bishop describes creates an image of a run down, slow-working, business that has been passed down to generations of the same family name. It is certainly not your local, corporate run, shell station. What I liked most about this poem is that it takes a simple place, and goes into grimy depth with it.

“Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” By James Wright

I sympathize with this poem. Often, I find myself visually taking in my surroundings, admirably.  I can get lost in a moment for over ten minutes. Ambiances can grasp your attention like that. James Wright describes one of his own moments in this beautifully short poem, and then ends it on a thought which I know has crossed everyone’s mind at one point or another (at least every day myself) in five words. “I have wasted my life”

“Meditation at Lagunitas” by Robert Hass

Robert Hass touches me with particular lines in this poem. You know when you read certain lines of a poem, and they just sort of jump out at you, and you’re like, “Woah I completely and totally GET THAT.” It’s written in free verse form with no location in particular, but that’s not what’s important in this poem. From what is described, in an easy going, conversation-like manner, is a glance back to his childhood. The title does however bring together the piece as whole. Assuming that Lagunitas is a place and meditation is referring to his reflections.