Skunk Hour

Elizabeth Bishops The Armadillo and Robert Lowells Skunk Hour are dedicated to one an opposite not simply out of friendship, but because each poet imitates each others style and alludes to the others key personal traits. While Bishop chin-wags on her friend Lowells rage against humanitys cruelty, Lowell writes of Bishops isolation and inner darkness, yet also a resilience to persevere. Written first, The Armadillo describes a celebration in which fire balloons are illegally set aloft, only to locate and burn animals homes.The poem moves from describing something apparently delightful, as the balloons flush and fill with light / that comes and goes, like 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 mouse hare flee the scene. Scholar Penelope Laurens writes Bishop dedicated this poem to Robert Lowell, who became a conscientious objector when the Allied hold in began fire-bomb ing German cities.Bishops poem points directly to these fire bombings, which wreaked the same kind of horrifying destruction on a part of our universe that the fire balloons wreak on the animals (On The Armadillo). The seemingly beautiful balloons start something ugly falling fire and piercing cry and the armadillo seems to symbolize Lowell, the weak mailed fist seize against the wars cruelty. However, it is less about his anti-war stance than about Bishops appreciation for Lowells top executive to write beautifully even about ugly, harsh subjects.According to scholar Bonnie Costello, The Armadillo has been read as a critique of his way of making art out of suffering . . . but here she dramatizes this artistic distance and the inevitable drop dead to the rage of the suffering body (On The Armadillo). Indeed, Bishop moves from a detached description of the balloons on strictly aesthetic terms and makes their effects dramatic and personal, with a sort of quiet anger at the crue lty of their effects.In response, Lowell playfully alludes to her as the hermit heiress with a bishop for a son (indeed, Bishop was childless and reclusive), and the fairy designer seems a nod to Bishops homosexuality, but these figures matter far less than the skunk at the end. As Bishop acknowledge Lowells gesture against warfare, Lowell pays tribute to Bishops view of the world around her not as ancient and antiquated, as the first stanzas suggest, but also as a decaying place, but also one where vitality 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 nighttime . . . not gracious, but secular, puritan, and agnostical (On Skunk Hour). The skunks seem a symbol of humanity, carrying on despite the unnamed malaise, much like the armadillo symbolizes Lowells gesture against cruelty.Here, Lowell identif ies with Bishop Steven Gould Axelrod writes that Lowell personifies that disease . . . and is as isolated and imbalanced as the heiress, as fallen as the ruined millionaire, and as loveless and artistically failed as the decorator (On Skunk Hour). A smack 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. forward-looking American Poetry.18 March 2006. . ________. On Skunk Hour. 2000. Modern American Poetry. 18 March 2006. . ________. The Armadillo. 1997. The academy of American Poets. 18 March 2006. . ________. Skunk Hour. 1997. The Academy of American Poets. 18 March 2006. .