Bishop’s metaphor sounds nice the first time you read it, and for the most part it conveyed to me what I believe the author was trying to say, however I have a problem with her choice of words and explanation of her metaphor.

“We can improvise on the forms others adore and experiment. In fact, that’s what practicing poets do…”.
Bishop then follows by stating her metaphor: “they enter the conversation of poetry…”.

Bishop’s metaphor is given for the statement in her previous sentence, saying the same thing, but metaphorically. However, I don’t see improvising and experimenting with another poet’s work as being the same thing as entering into a conversation. By entering a conversation what has to take place is communication between two persons. The only way this can be done is if one poet reads another poet’s work, writes a response or builds upon it in some way to communicate a new idea, followed by the original author reading the response and then building again on the second authors response, which again has to be read by the second author. The likelihood of this happening would be very slim unless both authors were very profound and familiar with one another.

I believe Bishops metaphor to be helpful, but probably not in the way it was intended. As people, we know that ideas build upon each other whether it be in technology, fashion trends, or poetry. The evidence can be easily seen.  As Mr. Griffith stated, “work in any field depends on its predecessors.” Examples include musical artist mimicking and making there own what other popular artists found to work for them as well as technologically as we have seen with various brands of electronics, such as Macintosh and Microsoft, releasing products with different names with very similar functions. Whether it be stylistic changes in art form, or technological advancements there are ongoing conversations and copying of what others are doing in similar fields of study and interest. This is not only helpful to the individual as they are furthering themselves, but to people as a whole as we are seeing advancements and new ideas in all areas.