Elizabeth Bishop is known for her creative style of writing that draws on the emotions of the readers. The author’s works have been described as thought provoking and extensive and these poems have survived decades after her death. Most of the poet’s works, including “Roosters” carry an underlined meaning and creates a high level of power and uncertainty. Literally, the poems deal with biblical story of the Peter and his denial that he was one of Jesus’ disciples. In the Bible, Jesus told Peter that he would deny any knowledge of him trice before the rooster’s crow. The events unfolded just as Jesus had said it would happen, but unlike the people in the poem, Jesus forgives Peter for his denial. Through her intense readings and travels, Bishop reveals the different symbolic nature of roosters with the use of vivid imagery.
Dana Gioia suggests that Bishop's poetry maintains an element of animation that reflects a deep sense of authenticity that was clear with writers who were confident in their style and never tried to write in any other way (Gioia 5). In fact, “Roosters” reflects a setting that is quite real and the readers are able to see the visual representations of the emotions of the author. Mark Howell reiterates the views that Roosters came out as an anti-war poem that appears at first to be a simple allegory of the military life in a small town (Howell 4). But these simple Haiku styled verses reflect the years that Bishop spent moving from family to family after her parents’ death. The language in the poem is simple and cohesive, but also includes the poet’s personal style of hidden rhetoric, complication, and misdirection.
The title of the poem is somewhat complicated as the poet suggested that it would be better to keep the title “Roosters” instead of the “cock” because of the simple fact rooters are held in more contempt (Howell). The contempt is clear in the poem as the poet uses the persistent crowing of the rooster as a means of blaming the military siege for its misrepresentation of that come through “the "rustling wives" or the hens that continue to admire the “cruel roosters” and their feathers that resembled the “green-gold medals." These roosters are a part of the lives of everyone and exert its dominance in the society.
In addition, the rooster signifies more that the life of the people living in the town of Key West and spread to the biblical betrayal of Jesus through the crowing of the cock. Amit Bhatlacharya in his review suggests that ‘Roosters’ creates a temporal adverbial ‘at four o’clock’ (Bhatlachary 341). This presentation helps to create the morning form and frame that leads to the emotional responses of the people in the poem. The cock also symbolized authority and violates the peace and quiet of the sleepers in the town and destroys the early morning sleep of the hen-wives and the female narrator.
The poem begins with the description of the setting and the poet gives a clear picture of the atmosphere and the surroundings. This is a gloomy and dark view which allows the readers to become engrossed into the mood at “four o'clock/in the gun-metal blue dark” (Bishop 1-2). The poet continues to describe the darkness of the moment and it is the use of these adjectives that brings about the obscurity of the setting. The rooster crows in the second section of the poem and the narrator appears to be quite annoyed by this continuous crowing at that early hour of the morning. The narrator wants to end the crowing, but that seems impossible and so the narrator focuses on the darkness of the early morning and the appearance as one of a "gun-metal blue." There is no doubt that the narrator is annoyed by the insistent crowing and would have taken actions against the "horrible insistence" of the rooster’s crowing.
Elizabeth Jones argues that Bishop’s use of the cock stem from the belief in the symbolic nature of cock and its Christian influence (Jones 2). The author further suggests that the rooster’s symbolism serves as a reminder of the story of “Christ, Peter and cock” (Bishop 2) and also as a reminder of the Greeks and their beliefs that the “because cocks are very combative” (Bishop 2). In addition, author believes that based on Bishop’s extensive travels the rooster formed a significant part of her readings on Socrates, the Greeks and the Christian Bible. But, the allusion to the cock could also be a part of the poet’s active imagination. Regardless of the reasons for the use of the rooster in the poem, it is clear that the narrator has become annoyed by the rooster. The narrator questions the roosters "whom the Greeks elected/to shoot at on a post, who struggled/when sacrificed" (Bishop 45 – 48). The narrator sees these creatures as “very combative" (Bishop 49). As such the narrator becomes angry as the rooster demands that everyone awakens at the early light of dawn and commands persons on how to live their lives.
References
Bhatlachary, Amit Towards a Post – Modern Poetics: Reading Elizabeth Bishop’s Reccy of
Realities, Rhupkattia Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 3.2, 2011, pp 339 – 355, Web 21 Apr 2016
Gioia, Dana, Wherever Home May Be, (2011) The Wall Street Journal, Web 21 Apr 2016
<http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703445904576118273647256388>
Howell, Mark, Elizabeth Bishop and the Horrible Insistence of Roosters (2011) Library of
America, Web 21 Apr 2016 <http://keysnews.com/node/42753>
Jones, Elizabeth, First Encounter XXXIII: Bishop’s “Roosters” (2011) The Elizabeth Bishop
Centennary Web, 21 Arp 2016 <http://elizabethbishopcentenary.blogspot.com>
