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The Prodigal was first published in The New Yorker on March 13, 1951, and is included in Bishop's second volume of poems, A Cold Spring (1955). The poet explained that the idea came to her in 1946 when
'one of my aunt's stepsons offered me a drink of rum, in the pigsties, at about nine in the morning, when I was visiting her in Nova Scotia'
And in a letter to the poet Robert Lowell, dated November 23, 1955, Bishop explained that the technique she employed in The Prodigal was 'like a spiritual exercise of the Jesuits where one thinks in great detail about how the thing happened'. On the approach of her 38th birthday (February 8,1949) Bishop plunged into a deep depression. In an effort to revive herself, the poet took a holiday in Haiti. From this exotic Caribbean resort she wrote to her friend and mentor, the poet Marianne Moore, that she had finished a number of poems, among them The Prodigal. Ironically on her return from Haiti Bishop went on a prolonged drinking binge. Thus, while the incident in the pig-sty was the catalyst that triggered the actual writing of the poem, the theme may well have been in the poet's thoughts for some time, given her lifelong battle against alcoholism. It is understandable why Bishop was drawn to the lonely, isolated figure of the prodigal. The biblical character becomes a surrogate for the poet herself, permanently exiled (but against her will) from a permanent home (her father died when she was eight months old and her mother was committed to a hospital for the insane when she was five years old). And like the prodigal, Bishop sought comfort for her problem in alcohol.
Bishop originally gave her poem the title The Prodigal Son. It is based on a parable told by Jesus and recorded in St. Luke
'A certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him..........
However, while Bishop's poem is based on the parable from Luke's gospel, she deliberately focuses, not on the happy ending, but on the ugliest and most debased period of the young man's life - his time spent as a swineherd after he had squandered his inheritance.
The Prodigal is a double sonnet with an irregular rhyme-scheme in both. The first fourteen lines observe the octave-sestet (8/6) division of the Italian sonnet form and also the quatrain-quatrain-quatrain-couplet (4/4/4/2) of the Shakespearean sonnet form. The second sonnet introduces an innovative septet-septet (7/7) division. The regular form and the irregular rhyme-scheme may reflect the conflict in the mind of the prodigal (and of Bishop) as he attempts to restore some moral order to his disordered life.
The ugliness and squalor of the pig-sty are unflinchingly described in the opening four lines of the first sonnet
The brown enormous odor he lived by
was too close, with its breathing and thick hair,
for him to judge. The floor was rotten; the sty
was plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dung.
The phrase 'brown enormous odor' brilliantly captures through synaesthesia the foul, pervasive odour and its source. The phrase 'lived by' is ambiguous. It can signify that the prodigal dwells in close proximity to this obnoxious smell, or that it enables him to eke out an existence through minding the foul smelling pigs. The atmosphere of the sty, created by the presence of the brown, thick-haired pigs, is too stuffy and heavy, 'close', to allow the prodigal to think clearly, 'judge'. The filthy condition of the pigs' enclosure is cacophonously described through assonance and harsh consonant sounds.
The floor was rotten; the sty
was plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dung.
The adjectives 'plastered' and 'glass-smooth' emphasise how thickly the animal excrement is caked on the walls and how compacted it is. The prodigal's pathetic situation is powerfully evoked through the disgusting descriptions. However, the setting is not so much revolting in itself as in its unsuitably as a piece of human habitation. It emphasises how low the prodigal has sunk that he should be reduced to such a bestial existence.
The focus now switches to the pigs themselves and a relationship is established between them and their minder
Light-lashed, self-righteous, above moving snouts,
the pigs' eyes followed him, a cheerful stare -
even to the sow that always ate her young
till, sickening, he leaned to scratch her head
The pigs' eyes follow the prodigal's movements. They are not over-awed by his human presence ('self-righteous') and willingly accept him, 'cheerful stare', in their domain. Sadly, the prodigal is so lonely, 'sickening', for human contact that he reaches out and touches the sow that 'always ate her young'. Both, in fact, are prodigals in different ways - they have self-indulgently eaten up their futures.
The adversative conjunction 'But' switches attention to the prodigal himself. We are told of his furtive, secretive, solitary drinking-bouts in an attempt to drown his loneliness and compensate for human alienation. Surprisingly, however, the morning after brings, not a hangover, but consolation. The beams of the rising sun transform the mundane world of the farmyard.
the sunrise glazed the barnyard mud with red;
the burning puddles seemed to reassure.
This moment of ephemeral natural beauty contrasts with the ugliness of the 'glass-smooth dung' and appears to have the effect of making the exiled prodigal son resigned to a further period of anguish and loneliness among the pigs.
And then he thought he almost might endure
his exile yet another year or more.
However, the phrase 'almost might' looks beyond present endurance and anticipates the final lines of the poem.
The opening line of the second sonnet is ambivalent.
But evenings the first star came to warn.
Superficially the star warns the prodigal that his human master will soon come to check his stock and stable them for the night. However, there is also the suggestion of the Biblical star which guided the shepherds and the wise men to the 'home' (ironically a stable) of their spiritual master in Bethlehem. Thus the star may represent, on a deeper level, a divine warning to the prodigal that it is time for him to set out on his journey home. There is a touching scene of animal domesticity (reminiscent of the stable in Bethlehem) as the farm animals settle down for the night.
the cows and horses in the barn
beneath their overhanging clouds of hay,
with pitchforks, faint forked lightnings, catching light,
safe and companionable as in the Ark.
The pigs stuck out their little feet and snored.
The double metaphor vividly captures the cosy surroundings. The farmer goes home to his wife and Noah had his wife to keep him company in the Ark. Sadly the prodigal has only the pigs for company. Significantly, there is no conversation with the farmer, further evidence of the prodigal's alienation from the world of humans. The scene ends with the lantern carried by the departing farmer (pacing) casting a moving circle of light on the mud in the stable-yard, just as the sun, nature's lantern, had done in the morning.
As in the first sonnet, the final focus is on the prodigal. The drudgery of his work is emphasised by cacophony
Carrying a bucket along a slimy board
Nature again intervenes positively in the prodigal's life, this time in the shape of the bats. The 'uncertain staggering flight' of these repulsive creatures on their journey home to their nests affects the prodigal and he experiences 'shuddering insights, beyond his control'. If blind bats can make their way home then the prodigal too can find his way. Thus the poem ends on an optimistic, though ambiguous, note.
it took him a long time
finally to make his mind up to go home.
The outcast has eventually decided, or will eventually decide, to return home. For the prodigal 'home' is both the family he abandoned and the society of his fellow human beings from which he has been excluded by his alcoholism. In the final movement of the first sonnet we saw how the prodigal temporarily escaped from the awful reality of his situation through drinking-bouts. Now at last he rejects endurance as an adequate response to his exile and makes up his mind to go home. In the gospel story this decision comes to the prodigal son quickly and without any agonising. But for Bishop's prodigal it only comes 'finally' as a result of 'shuddering insights'. The adjectives 'staggering and shuddering' hint at the effects of excessive drinking.
Nature is used very effectively by Bishop to advance the theme of The Prodigal. In the first sonnet living nature, the pigs, emphasises the squalid lifestyle of the prodigal. Then inanimate nature - the beams of the early sun - inspire him to patient endurance. In the second sonnet the poet builds up a cosy picture of animal domesticity from which the prodigal is excluded. In the final lines of the poem living nature, the bats, inspire the prodigal's decision finally to go home.
In the parable of the prodigal son Elizabeth Bishop discovered a metaphor for her own pathetic condition as an abuser of alcohol - the isolation, the deception (of self and others), the aspirations left unfulfilled. However, the Biblical story is also a source of hope for the poet. While her version of the parable mercilessly describes a flawed human being debased to the level of animals by alcohol abuse, it also describes how the prodigal finally finds the courage to rise above his wretched condition and rejoin the human race. On a broader level the prodigal represents all human beings who find themselves rejected by society because of some weakness in their nature which they must struggle to overcome. It is important to emphasise that The Prodigal concludes on an optimistic note - the outcast will eventually succeed in returning home.
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