18 pages • 36 minutes read
Crusoe in England
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Themes
The Relativity of Significance
Bishop’s “Crusoe in England” often showcases the same objects through different lenses as a way of demonstrating that their significance is relative to the viewer and their circumstance. Bishop establishes this theme early in the poem through a literal lens as Crusoe describes the new island as a “black fleck [. . .] in the mate’s binoculars” (Lines 5-6). As if this fleck were not insignificant enough, Crusoe goes on to say the island is “like a fly” (Line 7). The discovery of a new land mass, under normal circumstances, would be a highly significant event in 18th-century England. This immediate reversal, therefore, sets the tone for the poem’s exploration of the relativity of significance.
Crusoe also plays with these ideas of significance while on his island. He shifts his sense of scale by sitting “on the edge of the highest” (Line 15) volcano on his island and imagining that he “had / become a giant” (Lines 19-20). This distorted sense of scale and significance plays an essential role of Crusoe’s time on the island. His flute has “the weirdest scale” (Line 83), and he feels “deep affection for / the smallest of [his] island industries” (Lines 86-87). These things, normally insignificant, are made significant through Crusoe’s circumstance.
When Crusoe leaves the island, he pays no attention to the means. He simply states that “And then one day they came and took us off” (Line 153). This line is in perfect iambic pentameter (See: Literary Devices), giving it a formal, inconsequential tone compared to the rest of the poem. Crusoe’s word choice, moreover, mirrors that of children’s stories, where things happen “one day” and without context or consequence. In England, Crusoe’s knife, once “reek[ing] of meaning” (Line 162), becomes similarly insignificant.
The Power of Names and Classification
Though insignificant to Crusoe, the knife he used to survive on his island gains a different set of meanings in England. The change in locale changes the knife’s classification from a practical tool to an artifact. This change in classification is the reason that the “local museum” (Line 171) asks Crusoe to donate the knife to them, but it is also why Crusoe views the knife as having lost its “living soul” (Line 169). This change in classification from tool to artifact changes the object at a fundamental level. Bishop explores the power of such names and classifications throughout the poem.
Crusoe has difficulty seeing England as anything but “another island” (Line 154), despite admitting that it “doesn’t seem like one” (Line 155). Here Crusoe grapples with the arbitrary power that names and classifications can have over people’s interactions with objects and places. When Crusoe wonders “who decides” (Line 155) what defines an island, he is stuck acknowledging that such an arbitrary decision is nonetheless significant. Crusoe relies heavily on the classification of islands, after all. He uses the presumed definition to mock the way naming and classifying things tends to disempower them. For instance, Crusoe calls the new island a “fly” (Line 7) as a way to point toward the absurdity of calling “a black fleck” (Line 5) an island. Still, these names and definitions serve to make these objects abstract and sterile, much in the same way a museum display removes the object’s practical function.
Continual Solitude
Perhaps more than anything else, “Crusoe in England” is a meditation of individual solitude. Whether on his island in the Caribbean or in England, “another island” (Line 154), Crusoe presents himself as an isolated figure. This emphasis on islands, for instance, and Crusoe’s statement that his “Blood was full of” (Line 156) islands, suggests that he has internalized his isolation. Islands, by their nature, are isolated from larger land masses (See: Symbols & Motifs). In the same way, Crusoe’s experience isolates him from the larger population of England.
In hindsight, Crusoe remembers his island as a solitary place where he “often gave way to self-pity” (Line 55). Crusoe describes the island in a way to enhance his feelings of isolation. He states that “there was one of it and one of me. / The island had one of everything” (Lines 67-68). The island, in other words, is a place of unique singularity where there is “one tree snail” (Line 69), “one variety of tree” (Line 71), and so on. Despite the unrivaled potentiality of Crusoe’s island (See: Poem Analysis), each creature there lives in isolation.
Crusoe’s rescue is also a solitary affair. Crusoe only spends a solitary line, “And then one day they came and took us off” (Line 153) on his rescue, and he makes no mention of any other person who played a part. The line itself is an island, in a stanza of its own, isolated from all other lines. This “one day” is as inconsequential as the “one variety of tree” (Line 71) on Crusoe’s island. In England, Crusoe’s experiences act as a prison, disconnecting him from the social conventions and values of his native country. When asked by the museum to donate the artifacts of his survival, Crusoe wonders, “How can anyone want such things?” (Line 180).
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