Elizabeth Bishop has attempted to capture the movement of a bird called the Sandpiper in her poem of the same name. We will analyse how successful she is in doing this, and also look at other visions of the world offered by the poet. The poem is set at the edge of the seashore where the Sandpiper lives: 'The roaring alongside he takes for granted and that every so often the world is bound to shake.' She refers to the roar of the sea as the waves break on the shore, and that for such a delicate bird, this feels like an earthquake every time. Notice how the first line runs onto the second line without any punctuation. It seems as if the lines are running out of control, just as the world might seem to be a dangerous place to the bird. Yet, there is a sense of steadiness and balance in the rhythm of the lines. This is a crucial element in a poem. The rhythm and feel of the lines convey the mood of the bird. Whatever the apparent chaos around it, it is calm and in control. The lines are trying to capture what Bishop describes as 'a state of controlled panic'. They run into one another and do not use capital letters at the beginning of each line. Yet the sense of rhythm and the rhyming patterns of the second and fourth lines still give this feeling of control. She goes on to use a simile to capture the sound and appearance of the sea: 'The beach hisses like fat' What does she mean by this? Have you ever stood on the seashore and watched as the sea runs out over the sand? This often leaves a mass of foam as the water trickles back into the sea. The simile is a good one because it captures both the sight and sound of this movement. In the third stanza, Bishop starts to bring into the poem more than just a description of the bird and its surroundings. She is still describing what it does, but she also begins to indicate a wider vision. She describes the bird watching its toes: 'Watching , rather, the spaces of sand between them, where (no detail too small) the Atlantic drains' Of course the Sandpiper would not be thinking those thoughts. Bishop is using the occasion to explore ideas of scale. On the one hand, she is describing the huge Atlantic Ocean; on the other, she is conjuring up the tiny grains of sand between the bird's feet. She is using these ideas to make us think about the beauty of the world. She is as interested in these ideas as she is in the bird itself. This is really where her skill lies as a poet. She is able to focus both on the details of the bird's movements and the general atmosphere of the beach, while at the same time providing a colourful vision of the universe. She is interested in ideas of contrast as well. One minute, 'the world is a mist', the next it is 'vast and clear'. In just a few words, she is able to sum up the changing nature of the world before her. She is amazed and in awe of this world, and yet the bird seems to ignore it since survival is its priority. The bird is 'focused', 'preoccupied', 'obsessed'. It is concerned with finding food and surviving, not with philosophical questions about the vastness of the world. You might find the ending of the poem rather odd: 'The millions of grains are black, white, tan, and grey, mixed with quartz grains, rose and amethyst.' The ending is undefined. The poem does not end with some kind of summing-up of the bird. It does not end with a clearly defined 'message' or moral. We are just left with a sense of the poet's wonder at the world, its vastness and glory.