Sestina Elizabeth Bishop

hovers above the old grandmother

September rain falls on the house.

and her teacup full of dark brown tears.

In the failing light, the old grandmother

She shivers and says she thinks the house

sits in the kitchen with the child

feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.

beside the Little Marvel Stove,

reading the jokes from the almanac,

It was to be, says the Marvel Stove.

laughing and talking to hide her tears.

I know what I know, says the almanac.

With crayons the child draws a rigid house

She thinks that her equinoctial tears

and a winding pathway. Then the child

and the rain that beats on the roof of the

house

puts in a man with buttons like tears

and shows it proudly to the grandmother.

were both foretold by the almanac,

but only known to a grandmother.
The iron kettle sings on the stove.
She cuts some bread and says to the child,

But secretly, while the grandmother

busies herself about the stove,
the little moons fall down like tears
from between the pages of the almanac

It's time for tea now; but the child

is watching the teakettle's small hard tears

into the flower bed the child

has carefully placed in the front of the house.

dance like mad on the hot black stove,

the way the rain must dance on the house.
Tidying up, the old grandmother
hangs up the clever almanac

on its string. Birdlike, the almanac

hovers half open above the child,

Time to plant tears, says the almanac.

The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house.

Elizabeth Bishop wrote this poem in

iambic pentameter. This poem, written in a
third person narrative, tells the story of a
grandmother and her child.
The tone is easily established as a sad,
melancholy one, as Bishop mentions the
words rain and tears several times
throughout the sestina.
The main literary devices used in this
poem are personification and repetition.
Several examples of personification being
used are the iron kettle sings on the
stove, rain must dance on the house, it
was to be, says the Marvel Stove, and I
know what I know, says the almanac.
There is repetition of the words tears,
almanac, and stove throughout.
Something has obviously had to have
occurred for the grandmother to be so sad.
To prevent herself from crying, she does
several things within the house such as
reading jokes from the almanac, tidying
up, making tea, and tending the stove.
The child does not seem to know why the
grandmother is sad, and neither does the
reader, until the narrator writes that the
child draws a man in a house. After the
child shows this to the grandmother, the
grandmother goes back to the stove and
cries to herself. The man the child draws
could be someone the grandmother was
close to that has died recently, possibly her
husband. This could be why the
grandmother is sad.
Possible themes of this poem are coping
with loss and moving on after a loved one
has died.