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Comment 15 of 15, added on November 14th, 2006 at 12:04 AM.
Equinoctial means of or pertaining to an equinox, which is when day and night are approximately the same length all over the earth. This happens when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator. It occurs usually around March 21 for the spring equinox, and September 22 for the fall equinox.
Lauren from United States
Comment 14 of 15, added on October 24th, 2006 at 9:26 PM.
Thank you guys a lot! This poem is about life and death. But, if you want, everything can be related to religions. And, could anyone do me a favour, talk about "equinoctial" please? I am not an astronologist...
CHN from Canada
Comment 13 of 15, added on June 26th, 2006 at 5:20 PM.
As a teacher, I enjoy reading all of these comments and ideas about the poem. But one thing that I and most teachers work very hard to impress on our students is that no one ( except the poet herself ) has the one real true answer to a poem's total meaning. No one knows exactly what the poet was doing here. What we DO know is that she created a beautiful and touching piece within the boundaries of a challenging poetry form, the sestina. With that in mind, be careful to look at her six word choices. Note that she sets it in September and that the tears are "equinoctial"--why? At the very least, consider that this poet had some intention of direction with the poem, and it most likely was NOT religious but rather more about age and youth, grief and innocence, and the symbolic qualities that only an almanac could possess. My students delight in finding possible meanings in this poem, but a true reader and lover of poetry must finally acknowledge that the poet used her or his word choices to convey a direction of sorts. Just ask one!!!
Jgill from United States
Comment 12 of 15, added on March 27th, 2006 at 2:03 AM.
if this poetry is so metaphorical,than why almanac,why stove and horrible deux ex machina(imagination).
what if almanac represent prediction of future,kids drawing is,her thoughts and idea of her life.stove would be a meaningless like most of us.so it might be soul of her father or mother telling the girl about life and death .
nafe qureshi from United States
Comment 11 of 15, added on March 25th, 2006 at 2:58 PM.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the form, i.e. the sestina. The repetitious permutations of the end words. Why choose those words/ WHy stove, grandmother, tears, child, almanac, house? This poem is about sorrow and restraint, the obsessive quality of grief, expression through domestic rituals, and as a previous poster has commented, the continuity and "inscrutability" of inanimate objects.
Alexandra from Canada
Comment 10 of 15, added on March 19th, 2006 at 9:21 PM.
Here are some thoughts, neither right nor wrong. I think this poem is about the death of the father of the child- the grandmother's son. The poem shows the grandmother burdened with the knowledge that she must keep from the child. The almanac appears to be all-knowing, and represents the passing of time and the seasons of life, perhaps even the knowledge that he would die. The child doesn't understand the meaning of what its drawing. The child can't comprehend the death or the sadness, and so the grandmother hides it from the child. The poem is meant to show the childs innocence, and how it is preserved by the grandmother, who is silently suffering.
cathy from United States
Comment 9 of 15, added on January 27th, 2006 at 11:56 AM.
I agree with the comments on religion. I found no allusions to the Bible or God or anything like that in this poem. Overall, the Sestina seems very morose to me. It seems so slow and laid back almost in a depressing way. When Bishop talks about the grandmother commenting on how it is cold and puts more wood in the stove in the fourth paragraph, it seems like no matter how much wood they put in the stove, they will never feel warm from the cold they feel inside. Just a wild guess, but I would say Bishop is thinking about her mother in the mental hospital when she wrote those lines.
Christina from Canada
Comment 8 of 15, added on January 15th, 2006 at 11:14 PM.
Harry Son, the little moons that the poem refers to is the lunar calendar of the current year that the almanac was published in. "Time to plant tears" expresses the almanac's indifference. The almanac is a book of information. "Time to plant..." is directed to farmers and gardeners to indicate the best time of year for planting vegetables, fruits, and herbs. There is an important element in the use of "time" as in the proper time of one's life for weeping. The almanac is cold and heartless for showing no sympathy to the fact that people cannot reserve their sorrows for another day. The almanac neither includes the difficulties of life and death nor love and hate. It is rather quite useless aside from its use as a factbook.
Tristan from United States
Comment 7 of 15, added on December 9th, 2005 at 6:55 PM.
"September rain" falls down on the house while grandmother cries for sadnes. I think Bishop tries to paint a scene of private sadness and emotions, difficult to express especially to a child, and even more so to the reader. I cannot see what is so sad except that she is old and old age is supposed to be the prelude to death. The tears on the kettle, in the tea cup--all seems uneven. What are the "little moons" that fall down from the almanac? The personification of the stove and the house makes sense as Claire explains it, but I think it makes the poem worse.
Harry Son from United States
Comment 6 of 15, added on November 22nd, 2005 at 10:19 AM.
Just one more thing to Kathreen,
It's thanks to sorrow and sadness that poets, novelists can write. (90% of literature is based on the artists' pain) For instance, Baudelaire, Sylvia Plath, V Woolf, etc. So don't think that jesus' peace or faith can satisfy anyone. It's false and it's more abnormal than assume who we truly are (WE ARE ALL BAD SINNERS, MAD, PERVERRS). But it's great and it can produce beautiful poems!!!
Claire from France
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Equinoctial means of or pertaining to an equinox, which is when day and night are approximately the same length all over the earth. This happens when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator. It occurs usually around March 21 for the spring equinox, and September 22 for the fall equinox.
Lauren from United States