Written with grace and flow that paints an alarmingly clear picture of more than just the obvious words, Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry depends upon the use of adjectives and other literary devices to develop a voice. Not only do these devices enable the poet to develop a story focused upon the question of identity, but it is through these devices that the life of the poet emerges, making statements of alienation, isolation, and frustration even while discussing something as innocuous-seeming as the moon. Not scrimping on the use of extended metaphors to express her ideas, Bishop is a master of lyrical phrases. Using everyday events, scenes, and actions, Bishop reflects on the personal elements of her life and exposes the postmodern condition of the greater population at the same time. By looking at poems such as “The Man-Moth,” “The Fish,” “Filling Station” and “Pink Dog,” one can get a sense of how the use of adjectives within her poetry provides Bishop with the power to capture life experiences of the postmodern age in allegorical settings. “The Man-Moth” is actually a poem that arose out of a misprint in the New York Times for the word “mammoth.” (Rzepka, 2001). For Bishop, this was a perfect example of the New York persona and an irresistible opportunity to poke a little fun at The Big Apple. Despite the teasing tone of the piece, with such phrases as “when the Man-Moth / pays his rare, although occasional, visits to the surface” and “The Man-Moth always seats himself facing the wrong way / and the train starts at once at its full, terrible speed”, this poem provides a glimpse into the postmodern feelings of isolation and alienation that had become associated with the big cities of the modern world. The “postmodern artist or writer is in the position of a philosopher: the text he writes, the work he produces are not in principle governed by pre-established rules, and they cannot be judged according to a determining judgment, by applying familiar categories to the text or to the work. The rules and categories are what the work of art itself is looking for” (Lyotard, 81). Here, the Man-Moth “cannot tell the rate at which he travels backward” and “does not dare look out the window”. Through this descriptive language, Bishop indicates the motion of individuals trapped within the city’s subways and patterns are not traveling forward, yet are not exactly traveling backward either. That the individual doesn’t have the nerve to look out the window indicates they are fearful of what they might find, even should it be nothing more than their own reflection, which has now become alien to them. Finalizing her poem, Bishop capitalizes her statement regarding the emptiness of the Man-Moth in her description of his eye. “It’s all dark pupil, / an entire night itself, whose haired horizon tightens / as he stares back, and closes up the eye”. There is no individual here, no subjectivity. When one attempts to establish a connection, they are met with a tight stare before the eye is closed against them. In “The Fish,” Bishop describes the perfect catch of a venerable old fish as she observes him hanging from her line. The fish hasn’t fought at all to prevent being reeled in and his skin hangs in strips “like ancient wallpaper” (11), the pattern reminding her of “full-blown roses / stain