Sestina - Elizabeth Bishop

September rain falls on the house.

In the failing light, the old grandmother

sits in the kitchen with the child

beside the Little Marvel Stove,

reading the jokes from the almanac,

laughing and talking to hide her tears.

She thinks that her equinoctial tears

and the rain that beats on the roof of the house 

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,

It's time for tea now; but the child

is watching the teakettle's small hard tears

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,

hovers above the old grandmother

and her teacup full of dark brown tears.

She shivers and says she thinks the house

feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.

It was to be, says the Marvel Stove.

I know what I know, says the almanac.

With crayons the child draws a rigid house

and a winding pathway. Then the child

puts in a man with buttons like tears

and shows it proudly to the grandmother.

But secretly, while the grandmother

busies herself about the stove,

the little moons fall down like tears

from between the pages of the almanac

into the flower bed the child

has carefully placed in the front of the house.

Time to plant tears, says the almanac.

The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove

and the child draws another inscrutable housei

This poem is written in a  sestina is a seven stanza poem. The first six stanzas consist of six lines and the last one of three. Something I find really interesting about them is way the last word of each line repeats itself: 'house, tears, child, almanac, stove, and grandmother.' Stanza 1 begins in a domestic scene as a grandmother reads jokes from an almanac to her granddaughter. Grief is suggested by the Autumnal atmosphere and the “failing light “. This is made explicit by the description of the grandmother “laughing and talking to hide her tears.”Stanza 2 chronicles the grandmother’s superstitious thoughts as the almanac, she believes, “foretold “ the tragedy which has engulfed the house. Meaning that only her grandmother is knowing of her loss as her granddaughter is too young to understand the lost of her parents. Yet the grandmother is unable to contain this grief away from her, and this is emphasized by Bishop’s personification of the kettle.“the tea kettle’s small hard tears Dance like mad on the hot black stove” Grief is ready to engulf the child. Her innocence cannot protect her indefinitely. In stanza 5, the author personifies the “Marvel stove” and the “almanac as it discuss the child’s loss. The child tries to escape from the grief which surrounds her by drawing a house and a man, generally supposed to represent her dead Father. However, the man’s buttons are like “tears”. The final two stanzas are surreal as they describe how reality contaminates 

the child’s fantastic imaginary world suggesting that her life will be tainted with tears once she is old enough to understand her grief. The speakers attitude in this poem would be reflective.The theme of the poem should be losing something or someone . The stove would be a symbolic of warmth. As it acts as a sense of comfort for both of them and the winding pathways shows in the girl's view a difficult pathway. An example of similie would be in stanza 6 "But secretly, while the grandmother busies herself about the stove, the little moons fall down like tears"