1. Sestina

2. Form
• In a sestina there are six unrhymed stanzas of
six lines and a seventh stanza of three lines.
• The same six words are used at the end of the
lines in each stanza.

3. Repetition
Repetition of the words:
Tears
Child
Stove
House
Almanac
Grandmother

4. Theme
• Childhood
• Family
• Memories
• Regret
• Sadness
• Reflect of the past

5. Tone
• No grief or sorrow is directly expressed, but
there is an underlying atmosphere that is
painfully emotional.
• Bishop’s relationship with her grandmother is
positive and she acts as a mother figure for
Bishop.

6. Summary – Stanza 1
• At the start of the poem the grandmother is telling jokes and
laughing ‘to hide her tears’.
• This is the first time were hear the word tears.

7. Summary – Stanza 2
• The rain is beating on the roof.
• As children do, Bishop focuses on the familiar objects are her;
– The kettle
– The stove
• She has no idea why her grandmother is crying, but thinks that
the almanac had foretold her tears, as it had the weather.

8. Summary – Stanza 3
• From her perspective, objects have a
personality and a life, just like the kettle.
• Bishop uses personification:
‘clever almanac’

9. Summary – Stanza 4
• The grandmother is suffering of grief of what
has happened to her daughter and
granddaughter.
• She hides her sorrow by drinking tea and
pretending she feels chilly. She is not
chilly, she is only sad and emotional.
• The cup is described as being full of not
tea, but ‘dark brown tears’. Tears in the teacup
represent sorrow and grief.

10. Summary – Stanza 5
• ‘The child draws a rigid house’. This shows
that the child is awareness that she lost her
father.
• The ‘rigid house’ with its ‘winding pathway’
represents tension and difficulties that the
family have experienced.

11. • Bishop uses personification:
– ‘It was to be, says the Marvel Stove’
– ‘I know what I know, says the almanac’

12. Summary – Stanza 6
• The mood is lifted in stanza six, with the ‘little
moons’ of the almanac falling ‘down like tears’
into the flower bed that the child has drawn.
• The flower bed suggests hope, beauty and
happiness for the future.

13. Summary – Final Stanza
• Bishop makes the almanac speak again:
‘Time to plant tears’
• This suggests that for the adult Bishop it is time
to bury her tears and move on.
• The final two lines shows that the grandmother
seems to have overcome the worst of her
grief, and the child continues to draw.