From Elizabeth Bishop's translation of the poem, "Family Portrait":
Twenty years is a long time.
It can form any image. If one face starts to wither,
Another presents itself, smiling.
...
Family features remain
lost in the play of bodies.
But there's enough to suggest
that a body is full of surprises.
The frame of this portrait
holds its personages in vain.
They're there voluntarily,
They'd know how--if need be--too fly.
...
I don't distinguish those
that went way from those
that stay. I only perceive
the strange idea of family
travelling through the flesh.
This poem captures the continuity and change that are inherent in families. Furthermore (and it is more striking when the poem is read as a whole, which is really the only way to read a poem), it breaks down, with more and more enjambment at the end of the poem, paralleling the possibility of leaving.
This poem captures the continuity and change that are inherent in families. Furthermore (and it is more striking when the poem is read as a whole, which is really the only way to read a poem), it breaks down, with more and more enjambment at the end of the poem, paralleling the possibility of leaving.
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