"The Bight" by Elizabeth Bishop and "Night, Death, Mississippi" by Robert Hayden

The poems I found the most interesting are “The Bight” by Elizabeth Bishop and “Night, Death, Mississippi” by Robert Hayden. I found it interesting how both poems reflected fire and roughness (or a sort of abruptness that made me cringe). Hayden and Bishop use the title as the first method of revealing place.

            In the “The Bight”, which takes place at the shore, Bishop compares her observations to the process of poetry- starts off simple like a “low tide,” but as you continue to write, your ideas create fire in your brain, that then becomes gas, which leads to music. The poem ends, stating “all the untidy activity continues, awful but cheerful.” The final line implies the continuation of poetry. Once one poem is done, another begins. Her detailed use of imagery makes the poem appeal to the senses. I could not only feel the crashing of the pelicans, and the fire from the flames, but I could also envision the array of colors that reflect the different objects. Throughout the poem, as Bishop continually describes her view, her location becomes even more obvious than it is in the title as she describes the “waves”, the “dock”, the “pelicans”, and “boats.”

            “Night, Death, Mississippi” describes the acts of a lyncher after having lynched someone. The narrator appears to be an observer recounting the lynching performed by a grandfather and a grandson- it is the grandson’s first time. The grandfather rewards the grandson with bottle in which “he’s earned.” Since Hayden mentions “white robes like moonlight,” I assume the lyncher is a KKK member. Hayden’s repeated use of “time was” makes it seem as though the lynching was normal. His reference to Jesus on the cross seems to signify the innocence of those who were lynched.