When reading Elizabeth
Bishop’s poem “I am in need of music” it almost feels like you are reading
lyrics to a song. It has that Flow of words to it. The poem is about how music
can help people.
As I read this poem as a huge
fan of music, I could understand what Elizabeth is writing about. ” Over my
bitter-tainted, trembling lips”(3). Music doesn’t only move you mentality and
sometimes without knowing your lips can be moving to the lyrics of the song.
Music puts you in a state that nobody can explain. “A song to fall like water on my head”(7). Have you ever
listen to music while taking a shower? It is so stress free with the water
flowing over your head. Out of all the words in this poem “Of some song sung to rest the tired
dead” (6) caught my attention. It says that music can help individuals get over
and forget about the past. It may be for just that moment but that duration of
the song you will feel free. The second part of “I am in need of music” is so
beautifully written with “A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool/Heart, that sinks through
fading colors deep/To the subaqueous
stillness of the sea/And floats forever in a moon-green pool/Held in the arms
of rhythm and of sleep”(10-13). Music can make you feel all kinds of way. Those
words describe a feeling of carefree and calmness.
An article titled
“Remembering Elizabeth Bishop” written by Katha Pollitt a student of
Elizabeth’s at Harvard. Katha said “She was a wonderful teacher, the perfect blend of formal and
free, just like her poems”. I agree with
that description of her because as I read “I am in need of music” it’s such a
free flowing poem as she had carried herself.
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