Kathryn’s elegy poem, “Bisbee,” is an account of a girl releasing her deceased dog’s ashes into a field of grass. The poem begins and ends in the present, standing in the field, but the four middle stanzas are memories of her poor pet suffering. The elegy has a melancholic tone, exhibiting the girl’s grief. It seems that by only including negative images of the dog alive, the speaker is reassuring herself that her pet is in a better place, and no longer suffering.
Katherine includes the word “now” in the first and last stanza, which ties the whole poem back together and lets the reader know they are in current day.I love the imagery in the second line, “a breeze speckled by fuzzed dandelion seeds,” I can truly see the ashes in the air with the flower particles, almost in a Horton Hears a Who kind-of-way.
I love the utilization of enjambment in stanzas two and three with the “said.” I can’t tell if the “said” goes with the line the said is on, or the following one, or both– it gives a little curiosity to it, even though the neighbor and doctor would very likely say both lines associated with them.
The first stanza could be reworded slightly with the where and when. The repetition of “in this same way you suffered” doesn’t really seem necessary, it doesn’t really add emphasis to the suffering for me.
I’d love to see more vivid details of the dog– maybe that would be too gory, depending on its condition, but maybe some imagery or texture of the fur?
I love that you bring it back to present day and the field and the drifting dandelions, but the “solitary dot” throws me off a little bit– if you’re throwing a handful of ashes, would it be a solitary dot?
The imagery of the fragile underbelly is great and I can’t wait to see more imagery from you!!