Mastodawn

Thomas Hardy’s “The Bridge of Lodi” and Elizabeth Bishop’s “Questions of Travel”. #111Words #Poetry #ThomasHardy #TheBridgeOfLodi #Napoleon #Lodi #TheBattleOfLodi #History #ElizabethBishop #QuestionsOfTravel https://111-words.ghost.io/thomas-hardys-the-bridge-of-lodi-and-elizabeth-bishops-questions-of-travel/

Thomas Hardy’s “The Bridge of Lodi” and Elizabeth Bishop’s “Questions of Travel"

In Thomas Hardy's poem "The Bridge of Lodi", in "Poems of the Past and the Present" (1901), about a visit to the site of Napoleon's early military success in Lodi, Lombardy, the speaker discovers that nobody there seems to know anything about that battle: "[...] wherefore should I be here, / Watching

111 Words

Andrew Shields Nov 13, 2025

Blaise Pascal and Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “Questions of Travel”. #111Words #ElizabethBishop #Poetry #QuestionsOfTravel #BlaisePascal #PascalsWager #QuietRoom #Letters #PascalsLaw https://111-words.ghost.io/blaise-pascal-and-elizabeth-bishops-poem-questions-of-travel/

Blaise Pascal and Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “Questions of Travel"

This morning in my Elizabeth Bishop seminar, we discussed the reference to Blaise Pascal in her 1965 poem "Questions of Travel": "Or could Pascal have been not entirely right / about just sitting quietly in one's room? " I had dug up the line from Pascal's "Pensées": "I have discovered that all

111 Words

Andrew Shields Dec 6, 2022

"Lent trees" in Elizabeth Bishop's "Electrical Storm". #111Words #ElizabethBishop #QuestionsOfTravel #ElectricalStorm #LentTree #Quaresmeira https://andrewjshields.blogspot.com/2022/12/lent-trees-in-elizabeth-bishops.html

"Lent trees" in Elizabeth Bishop's "Electrical Storm"

Elizabeth Bishop's poem "Electrical Storm" (from "Questions of Travel", 1965) ends with trees: "The Lent trees had shed a...