Skunk Hour

Elizabeth Bishops The Armadillo and Robert Lowells Skunk minute are dedicated to one an early(a) not simply stunned of fri ceaseship, but because individually poet imitates each others style and alludes to the others key personal traits. While Bishop comments on her friend Lowells rage against humanitys cruelty, Lowell pens of Bishops isolation and inner coloredness, soon enough withal a resilience to persevere. Written first, The Armadillo describes a celebration in which fire amplifys are illegally set aloft, only to fall and prune animals homes.The poem moves from describing something apparently delightful, as the balloons flush and fill with light / that comes and goes, corresponding hearts to a suddenly violent scene of the burst balloon burning an owls nest, frightening the birds from their home. As it burns, an armadillo and baby rabbit flee the scene. assimilator Penelope Laurens writes Bishop dedicated this poem to Robert Lowell, who became a conscientious objecto r when the ally command began fire-bombing German cities.Bishops poem points directly to these fire bombings, which wreaked the alike(p) kind of horrifying destruction on a part of our humans that the fire balloons wreak on the animals (On The Armadillo). The seemingly beautiful balloons deform something ugly falling fire and piercing cry and the armadillo seems to symbolize Lowell, the reeking mailed fist clenched against the wars cruelty. However, it is less close his anti-war stance than ab divulge Bishops appreciation for Lowells ability to write beautifully even about ugly, harsh subjects.According to scholar Bonnie Costello, The Armadillo has been express as a critique of his way of making art out of twinge . . . but here she dramatizes this aesthetic distance and the inevitable return to the rage of the suffering body (On The Armadillo). Indeed, Bishop moves from a detached description of the balloons on rigorously aesthetic terms and makes their effects dramatic an d personal, with a sort of tranquility anger at the cruelty of their effects.In response, Lowell playfully alludes to her as the hermit inheritress with a bishop for a son (indeed, Bishop was childless and reclusive), and the fairy decorator seems a nod to Bishops homosexuality, but these figures matter far less than the green goddess at the end. As Bishop acknowledged Lowells gesture against warfare, Lowell pays bonus to Bishops view of the world roughly her not as quaint and antiquated, as the first stanzas suggest, but also as a decaying place, but also one where life continues nonetheless.Lowell himself claimed, The first four stanzas are meant to give a dawdling more or less amiable picture of a declining Maine sea town . . . but then all comes alive in stanzas V and VI. This is the dark night . . . not gracious, but secular, puritan, and agnostical (On Skunk instant). The skunks seem a symbol of humanity, carrying on despite the unnamed malaise, such(prenominal) like th e armadillo symbolizes Lowells gesture against cruelty.Here, Lowell identifies with Bishop Steven Gould Axelrod writes that Lowell personifies that disease . . . and is as isolated and ill as the heiress, as fallen as the ruined millionaire, and as unloving and artistically failed as the decorator (On Skunk Hour). A sense of self-loathing and inner darkness permeates the poem, implying that Lowell sees these in Bishop. However, the skunk at the end will not scare, making its way despite the world around it.These two poems comment on their subjects personal traits and outlooks, using symbols to describe each other. Bishops armadillo, a small, clenched being in the midst of chaos, pays tribute to Lowells antiwar stance, while the Lowells skunk, which moves furtively in its decaying New England setting, acknowledges Bishops sense of despair but also her tenacity and willingness to persevere as both person and artist. REFERENCES Anonymous. On The Armadillo. 2000. Modern American Poet ry.18 March 2006. . ________. On Skunk Hour. 2000. Modern American Poetry. 18 March 2006. . ________. The Armadillo. 1997. The honorary society of American Poets. 18 March 2006. . ________. Skunk Hour. 1997. The Academy of American Poets. 18 March 2006. .