Application of the Scientific Method to Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish” and “The Monument”

Abstract

This essay explores how the principles of the scientific method can be applied when thinking about poetry. Poets and scientists use similar patterns of inquiry, like those reflected in the scientific method, to develop an understanding of the natural world and of human experiences. This essay offers close readings of Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish” and “The Monument” through the languages of poetic and scientific discourse. Poems with scientific craft or thematic concerns will not push a preconceived agenda, just as scientific experimentation cannot be performed with a prescribed conclusion. In the case of the noted poems, I am concerned with examining how Bishop’s poems utilize scientific reasoning, specifically observation, to reveal non-scientific truths about their subjects.