"Sestina," by Bishop

I instantly found Bishop’s “Sestina” fascinating. The tone, repetition, content, and form seem to work so harmoniously, constructing a beautiful, yet painfully sad, moment in time. It’s a snapshot of the burden of human life and its inevitable tragedies.

First thing I wondered about was the almanac. She describes it as a “clever almanac” that the grandmother and child read from and laugh over. This makes me think it could be a reference to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Whatever it is, it is one of several things repeated throughout the poem, along with tears and the “Little Marvel Stove.”

It’s obvious that there has been a death in the family, probably that of the child’s father. When the child draws a picture of “a man with buttons like tears,” the grandmother “busies herself about the stove.” This direct aversion to the child’s picture insinuates the grandmother has not come to terms with the death and is still mourning. The child shows it “proudly” to her, suggesting the child does not know her father has died, or that she is too young to comprehend the death of her father. If the death is recent, a young child not grasping that their father is gone makes sense. However, I think the child is unaware.

It seems what the overall point of the poem is to show how the grandmother is burying her grief, keeping it to herself, rather than airing it out and coping with the devastation. She busies herself about the stove, tending to its fire. The stove’s fire and warmth it emits could represent the warmth of life she is trying to sustain despite its obvious absence, or the love that she feels for the child’s father (who is either her own son, or her son-in-law). Continuing to keep the fire burning while ignoring the tears that appear throughout the poem (like the rain outside and the steam on the kettle), is a direct reference to her refusal to cope with her overwhelming grief.

I wonder what kind of role the child’s mother plays in her life, as it seems that the grandmother is now the sole caretaker of the child after the death of the child’s father. Has the mother also died? This could be one possibility that explains why the grandmother is trying to hold in that grief. If the child has already lost her mother, the grandmother may want to put off telling the child that her father has also died, to spare her of even more pain. When the child draws a picture of their house, she only draws her dad, so maybe the mother has been gone for quite some time. Just a theory.