‘First Death in Nova Scotia’ is a poem by Elizabeth Bishop, published in her collection of Poems ‘Questions of Travel’ in 1965. The poem consists of five stanzas and is written in free verse with scattered rhymes in verses; the speaker traces her encounter with death in the family, as a young toddler. It is written from a child’s point of view as she pays final respects to her late cousin, Arthur. The tone of the poem is melancholy and sorrowful as the speaker faces a loss in her family. The theme of children’s innocence is highlighted as the child is trying to understand the finality of life through death. Children do not process death as a permanent end to life, but the author places the child in a tense situation of grief and lets the child explore her imagination around the subject.
With the help of descriptive, objective, and detailed imagery, Bishop captures the innocence of the child’s experience of loss and presents the confusion she faces via the unusual associations in her mind.
First Death in Nova Scotia | Summary & Analysis
First Death in Nova Scotia – Analysis, Lines 1 – 2
In the cold, cold parlor
my mother laid out Arthur
In the opening lines of the poem, the speaker introduces the setting of the room in which Arthur’s corpse is laid out. She describes the room as a “cold, cold parlour”, which lacks happiness or positive emotions after the death of her cousin. It might also resemble the setting in which Bishop lived, which was bleak and cold since she had a turbulent childhood. The atmosphere of the place is described in her repetition of the word “cold“.
First Death in Nova Scotia – Analysis, Lines 3 -6
beneath the chromographs:
Edward, Prince of Wales,
with Princess Alexandra,
and King George with Queen Mary.
In the next few lines of stanza 1, Bishop makes use of sensory images related to sight to express the visuals of the room in a very uncomplicated manner. The body has been laid out for display beneath the chromographs of royalty, which include Edward, Prince of Wales, Princess Alexandra, King George, and Queen Mary, representing the colonial roots of the speaker. Since the body has been placed beneath the chromographs, it gives a sense of sophistication and supremacy that the British royals possess. It also suggests Nova Scotia is one of the British colonies, hence the residents have held the royals in high regard by displaying their portraits in personal spaces.
First Death in Nova Scotia – Analysis, Lines 7-10
Below them on the table
stood a stuffed loon
shot and stuffed by Uncle
Arthur, Arthur’s father.
In the last lines of stanza 1, the speaker gives a detailed description of the room, which includes the stuffed loon that was shot and stuffed by Uncle Arthur. The dead bird suggests that hunting was Uncle Arthur’s hobby. The speaker relates the lifelessness of the bird to her deceased cousin, Arthur.
First Death in Nova Scotia – Analysis Lines 11-16
Since Uncle Arthur fired
a bullet into him,
he hadn’t said a word.
He kept his own counsel
on his white, frozen lake,
the marble-topped table.
At the beginning of the second verse, the child personifies the bird as possessing human qualities of speaking and action. The readers understand that the child does not comprehend death easily and that dead objects and people are inanimate. It also suggests that the dead cousin and the dead bird are blurred in her mind. She is affected by the demise of her cousin, which leads her to divert her attention to other inanimate objects in the room.
The speaker uses metaphor to compare the marble-topped table to a white, frozen lake, reinforcing the coldness of the atmosphere around her. Bishop introduces the element of colour through the frozen lake that is white in colour. Here the colour white signifies cold.
First Death in Nova Scotia – Analysis Lines 17-20
His breast was deep and white,
cold and caressable;
his eyes were red glass,
much to be desired.
The second stanza ends with the speaker’s illustration of the bird with a desirable set of eyes that were like red glass. The use of the colour red symbolises that he was full of life. However, Bishops plays with colours through the use of white to suggest the element of grandeur in the loon. One observes the contrast through the use of ‘cold’ and ‘caressable’, the speaker uses contradictory ideas to represent the child’s view of the bird, which suggests its perception of reality is naive.
One understands that even though the speaker portrays beautiful and desirable descriptions for the bird, Uncle Arthur fired a bullet into him, indicating the speaker’s frustration with the death of the bird. One notices the deliberateness of the speaker to focus on the loon to avoid the subject of death.
First Death in Nova Scotia – Analysis, Lines 21 – 26
“Come,” said my mother,
“Come and say good-bye
to your little cousin Arthur.”
I was lifted up and given
one lily of the valley
to put in Arthur’s hand.
The third verse of the poem begins with a dialogue in which the mother asks her child to say goodbye to her cousin. However, the child does not understand that this will be a final goodbye for Arthur. The theme of death and grief is evident in these lines. She was given a lily to offer, in Arthur’s hand. The lily flower symbolises anguish, innocence, and rebirth. It also represents the fragility of life, which is evident in Arthur’s death at a young age.
First Death in Nova Scotia – Analysis, Lines 27 – 30
Arthur’s coffin was
a little frosted cake,
and the red-eyed loon eyed it
from his white, frozen lake.
In the above lines of the third stanza, the speaker compares her cousin’s coffin to a little frosted cake. Her association of the coffin with the frosted cake reflects the naivety of the child, and she is trying to find comfort through her wild imagination. Later on, she is confronted by the red-eyed loon, which indicates his ominous presence in the room. Whenever the child lets her imagination run free, the loon interrupts her. The red-eyed loon looks at the cake on the marble table, which is described as a white frozen lake. Here, the visual imagery and the element of colour through the red-eyed loon signify the hunger of the bird, making it appealing to readers.
First Death in Nova Scotia – Analysis 31-33
Arthur was very small.
He was all white, like a doll
that hadn’t been painted yet.
In the fourth stanza, the speaker finally addresses the death of her cousin. She refers to Arthur in the past tense, which symbolises that the child has accepted that her cousin no longer exists. She compares him to a doll that has not been painted yet, signifying the youthfulness of Arthur as someone who did not get to experience life fully and has left dreams unachieved. Here, the colour white suggests purity and innocence. “That hadn’t been painted yet” represents that he did not start living his life and was in his tender years when he died.
First Death in Nova Scotia – Analysis 34-40
Jack Frost had started to paint him
the way he always painted
the Maple Leaf (Forever).
He had just begun on his hair,
a few red strokes, and then
Jack Frost had dropped the brush
and left him white, forever.
Here, Bishop introduces the mythical figure of Jack Frost, who is the embodiment of winter, ice, snow, frost, etc. Jack Frost had started to paint Arthur in the same way as the maple leaf.
The maple leaf is an ode to the setting of Nova Scotia. Again, the author introduces an interesting mix of colours where red symbolises life. However, Jack Frost drops the brush, and Arthur is left white, representing his death. ‘Forever’ demonstrates that the speaker as a child has finally accepted the end of Arthur’s life and has come to terms with reality.
First Death in Nova Scotia Analysis Lines 41 – 44
The gracious royal couples
were warm in red and ermine;
their feet were well wrapped up
in the ladies’ ermine trains.
In the final stanza, the speaker diverted her attention to the British royal family, introducing the fairy-tale element in the poem. The portraits of the royals seem to provide comfort to the child in times of despair and loss. She refers to them as gracious and warm in red and ermine; here, the colour red symbolises warmth, liveliness, and love which is contradictory to the red-eyed loon. She meticulously presents their appearances: “feet were well wrapped up”, indicating their lavish lifestyle and the stark contrast with Arthur in the coffin.
First Death in Nova Scotia Analysis Lines 45-50
They invited Arthur to be
the smallest page at court.
But how could Arthur go,
clutching his tiny lily,
with his eyes shut up so tight
and the roads deep in snow?
In the final lines of the poem, the speaker imagines the afterlife of Arthur in the royal family, which will be full of glory and celebration. It is a happy moment for the child since Arthur is invited to be the smallest page at the court. However, she is hit by truth when she asks herself, “But how could Arthur go” since his eyes are shut tight. The speaker transitions from fantasy to reality and acknowledges the death of Arthur. Again, the use of snow represents the coldness of the situation.
About the Author – Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop, an American poet and short-story writer, was born in 1911 in Massachusetts. She witnessed a disturbing and unstable childhood since her father died when she was a year old. Later, her mother was admitted to a mental institution when Bishop was 5 years old. She lived in Nova Scotia with her maternal grandparents. Her childhood was spent in Nova Scotia and Massachusetts. Her poetry uses vivid, objective descriptions with a detailed perspective.
Her style of writing is characterised as discreet and distant from personal experiences, which is unlike confessional poetry. However, themes of loneliness, childhood, death, and grief are often explored in her poems, which might reflect her disturbed childhood. Her poems are often characterised as rich with visual and colourful imagery, along with descriptive verses, making her an imagist poet. Bishop received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1956 and the National Book Award in 1970. A few of her famous works include Sestina, In the Waiting Room, The Fish, Crusoe in England, etc.