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“First Death in Nova Scotia” Introduction
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"First Death in Nova Scotia" appears in Elizabeth Bishop's 1965 collection Questions of Travel. Its speaker recalls a poignant scene from her early childhood: a wake held for her very young cousin, Arthur, in the family parlor. Her detailed memories capture her fascination and unease as the reality of death begins to dawn on her. The poem illustrates how a child's death can profoundly unsettle other children, prompting their first realization that life comes to a permanent end.
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“First Death in Nova Scotia” Summary
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My mom laid out Arthur's body for viewing in the very cold sitting room. Above him were color pictures of English royalty: the current King and Queen and the former Prince and Princess of Wales. A table under the pictures held a taxidermied loon, a bird that my Uncle Arthur, Arthur's dad, had killed and stuffed for display.
The loon had been totally silent ever since Uncle Arthur shot him. He kept to himself on the marble tabletop, which looked like an ice-covered lake. The feathers on the front of his body were thick, white, chilly, and soft to the touch. His eyes had been replaced by red glass beads, which I coveted.
Mom called me over to say goodbye to my young cousin (that is, to pay my respects at his coffin). She boosted me and handed me a single white lily to give him. His coffin looked like a small glazed pastry, and the red eyes of the stuffed bird seemed to stare at it from the icy-looking tabletop.
My cousin Arthur was tiny and pale; he resembled a doll awaiting a coat of paint. I imagined that Jack Frost, the legendary spirit of winter, had begun painting him, just as he supposedly paints the red maple leaf (Canada's national symbol) year after year. I imagined Jack Frost had applied a little red paint to Arthur's hair, then stopped working, leaving Arthur permanently pale.
The elegant royalty in the pictures looked cozy in their furry red clothes. Their feet were snugly covered in the trailing fur cloth of the women's robes. I imagined that they were summoning Arthur to serve as the youngest attendant at their royal court. But how could he possibly travel to England, little flower in hand, considering that his eyes were firmly closed and the house was snowed in?
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“First Death in Nova Scotia” Themes
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Childhood Innocence vs. Awareness of Death
"First Death in Nova Scotia" describes its speaker's first encounter with death as a child. The speaker recounts a family wake held for her young cousin, Arthur, when the speaker herself was too young to understand death fully. The poem's descriptions stress the small size and fragility of Arthur's body, while capturing the innocent speaker's struggle to come to grips with his passing. Her childlike impressions make death seem jarringly cruel and disorienting to innocent young minds.
The poem repeatedly emphasizes the smallness and vulnerability of Arthur's body, making death seem powerful and brutal by comparison. The speaker's mother calls Arthur the speaker's "little cousin," for example, and he is junior to his father, also named Arthur. The speaker herself describes Arthur as "very small" and "doll"-like, with a "tiny lily" and a coffin like a "little frosted cake."
All of this language portrays the boy as diminutive and delicate, a fragile figure overpowered by death. This focus on his childlike body also hints that the speaker, for the first time, grasps how death can come for anyone—even someone as young as herself. And while the poem never mentions Arthur's cause of death, its description of a bird "shot and stuffed" by his father frames death as violent and pitiless—something that can abruptly destroy vulnerable creatures, including kids.
At the same time, the speaker struggles to understand what death actually means for Arthur. Arthur's pale corpse reminds her of "a doll / that hadn't been painted yet"; she imagines the folklore figure "Jack Frost" starting to paint him, then "dropp[ing] the brush." In other words, she tries to relate Arthur's pallor to what little she knows about the world. But to the mature reader, her naive impressions only convey the terrible, pitiable reality of a child's dead body.
Likewise, she naively associates Arthur's body, in its ceremonial setting, with the pictures of royalty in the parlor. She imagines he'll be joining their "court," then realizes this fantasy doesn't make sense: his eyes are "shut up [...] tight," as if he's sleeping forever. In this moment, it seems to dawn on her that Arthur may have nowhere to "go," no future of any kind. The blunt reality of his death starts to dispel her childhood fantasies about an exciting afterlife.
Thus, the poem depicts a double tragedy: the tragedy of Arthur's premature death and the tragedy of its impact on the speaker. The speaker begins to grasp the immense power of death, and the threat it poses even to children as small as herself. Even if this "First Death" didn't completely shatter her innocence, it profoundly jarred her, as she recalls it in minute detail many years later.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-50
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The Strangeness and Finality of Death
The speaker's cousin Arthur isn't the only deceased figure in "First Death in Nova Scotia": the poem also describes the "stuffed loon" in the family parlor. To the speaker, this dead bird seems both appealing and eerily remote. Meanwhile, the speaker imagines Arthur as an unpainted "doll" in an attractive, "cake"-like coffin, and a "page at [the] court" of the royalty in the parlor's framed pictures. Yet the speaker starts to realize that Arthur can't actually mingle with royalty—in fact, like a doll, can't "go" anywhere or do anything. Through a child's eyes, then, the poem captures the magnetic strangeness of death: the way the dead can look alive, even dignified, yet are permanently cut off from the living world.
Through its description of a taxidermied bird, the poem illustrates how the dead can tantalizingly resemble the living even as they remain disturbingly separate. During young Arthur's wake, he shares the parlor with a "loon / shot and stuffed by" his father. This juxtaposition invites comparisons between the two bodies, both of which belong to relatively small, vulnerable, male creatures. The loon even seems to "eye[]" Arthur's body, reinforcing the connection between the two. The bird's feathery breast strikes the speaker as both "cold and caressable"; that is, it's soft and pleasant to touch, like a living bird, yet has the unappealing "cold" of a corpse. Similarly, the bird's "red glass" eyes seem "much to be desired," like beautiful gems, but the bird overall looks remote and unapproachable on the "frozen lake" of his tabletop. He remains silent ("ke[eps] his own counsel"), heightening his remoteness and mystery.
Arthur himself inspires a similar mix of reactions in the young speaker: he looks compelling and vibrant in some ways, alien and disturbingly lifeless in others. The speaker compares him to a "doll" and his coffin to "a little frosted cake": things that typically appeal to children. Yet he looks like an unfinished doll, one that "ha[s]n't been painted yet." Even more jarringly, he looks as though he'll remain unfinished and pale "forever." Because he's "laid out" under pictures of royalty (and presumably dolled up in fancy burial clothes), the speaker imagines that he'll join the English royal "court" as its "smallest page." In other words, she imagines death will be a special treat for him. But as she thinks about it further, this idea doesn't make sense: Arthur looks totally lifeless "with his eyes shut up so tight," and the "deep [...] snow" outside will keep him from making any kind of special journey.
In describing both bird and boy, then, the poem portrays death as equal parts fascinating and unnerving. This effect is especially acute for young observers (who don't fully grasp that the dead aren't coming back)—but the imagery reminds adult readers, too, of death's haunting strangeness and permanence.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-50
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “First Death in Nova Scotia”
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Lines 1-6
In the cold, ...
... with Queen Mary.Along with the title, lines 1-6 establish the poem's setting and basic situation. "First Death in Nova Scotia" indicates that the poem will be about a death—the "First" the speaker has ever encountered—in the Canadian Maritime province of Nova Scotia. These opening lines reveal that the deceased is named "Arthur," and that the speaker's "mother" has "laid out" Arthur's body for viewing at a wake.
In this context, the phrase "cold, cold parlor" (line 1) might seem to describe a commercial funeral parlor. However, the subsequent description of the room's lively decor—old-fashioned color prints ("chromographs") of royalty; a bird taxidermied by the speaker's uncle—suggests that this is instead a home parlor, a sitting room normally used for entertaining guests. So while it's not yet clear who "Arthur" is, the reader can gather that his wake is occurring in a family home, likely during a "cold, cold" Canadian winter.
The "chromographs," or color lithographs, depict two British royal couples: "Edward" and "Alexandra," formerly the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra), and "King George [V]" and "Queen Mary," who reigned during the poet's youth. Despite its formal independence, Canada remains part of the British Commonwealth, meaning that Kings and Queens of England technically rule over Canada as well—hence the presence of their pictures in this Canadian home. (Also, prior to the 1980s, Canada had slightly less autonomy from the UK than it does now.)
The poem was published in the 1960s, by which time all these royal figures were dead and their reigns long since over. In fact, Edward VII died the year before the poet was born. Thus, while it's not yet clear when the poem is set (or how old the speaker was at the time, how the speaker knew the deceased, etc.), these "chromographs" signal that the speaker is telling an anecdote from decades prior.
Here and throughout the poem, the lines follow a three-beat accentual meter. Each line contains three stressed syllables, but the position of those stresses, as well as the syllable count, varies. Listen to lines 1-2, for example:
In the cold, cold parlor
my mother laid out Arthur [...]In line 1, the three stresses cluster in the middle of the line; in line 2, they alternate with unstressed syllables. Along with the irregular rhyme scheme, this loose meter gives the language a degree of flexibility (and even playfulness, despite the serious subject matter). Accentual meter is also a common feature of children's verse, so it makes a good fit for this poem, whose speaker is an adult relating a childhood memory.
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Lines 7-10
Below them on ...
... Arthur, Arthur's father.
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Lines 11-16
Since Uncle Arthur ...
... the marble-topped table. -
Lines 17-20
His breast was ...
... to be desired. -
Lines 21-26
"Come," said my ...
... in Arthur's hand. -
Lines 27-30
Arthur's coffin was ...
... white, frozen lake. -
Lines 31-36
Arthur was very ...
... Maple Leaf (Forever). -
Lines 37-40
He had just ...
... him white, forever. -
Lines 41-46
The gracious royal ...
... page at court. -
Lines 47-50
But how could ...
... deep in snow?
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“First Death in Nova Scotia” Symbols
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Lily of the Valley
The lily of the valley is a white, bell-shaped flower sometimes used in weddings, funerals, and other ceremonies. Because it's pale, fragile, and "tiny," like young Arthur, it symbolically mirrors his beauty and vulnerability, as well as the brevity of his life (which has "flowered" and decayed in a short time). All of these factors make the lily a fitting symbol for him to carry into the grave. White is also sometimes used to symbolize purity and innocence, so here it might represent Arthur's innocence as a small child.
Finally, lily of the valley is poisonous; if ingested, it can cause acute sickness and even, in extreme cases, death. Like other elements of this funeral scene (the stuffed bird, freezing winter, etc.), it serves as a reminder of death and danger.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 24-26: “I was lifted up and given / one lily of the valley / to put in Arthur's hand.”
- Line 48: “clutching his tiny lily,”
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Red and White
Red is the color of blood, so it's symbolically associated with life and vitality—at least, in some contexts. In other contexts, it can be associated with danger or violence (spilled blood). White carries all sorts of traditional symbolism, but in this poem, it's mainly associated with the pallor and icy "frozen[ness]" of death.
Both red and white feature in the descriptions of cousin "Arthur," the "loon," and the "chromographs":
- Cousin Arthur, lying dead in his coffin, is described as "all white" except for the "red" in his hair. He's also given a "lily of the valley," a white flower. The coffin itself is compared to a "little frosted cake," so it, too, may be white.
- The loon has eyes of "red glass," and it sits on a white marble tabletop (which the speaker compares to a "white, frozen lake").
- The "royal couples" in the chromographs wear "red" robes with "ermine" trimming. Ermine fur is typically white with black streaks. (The ermine itself—a small, weasel-like animal—has a white winter coat and black tail.)
Finally, the entire house is surrounded by white "snow" (line 50).
Symbolically, the mixture of red and white may reflect the way the young speaker confuses life and death. She sees that all these figures are as motionless and "frozen" as marble, but she still ascribes some agency or vitality to them. (Arthur seems to be "clutching" his flower; the loon seems to "k[eep] his own counsel"; the royal couples seem "warm," etc.) She's only just beginning to understand that death means the end of agency and vitality.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 15: “on his white, frozen lake,”
- Line 17: “His breast was deep and white,”
- Line 19: “his eyes were red glass,”
- Line 25: “one lily of the valley”
- Lines 27-30: “Arthur's coffin was / a little frosted cake, / and the red-eyed loon eyed it / from his white, frozen lake.”
- Lines 32-40: “He was all white, like a doll / that hadn't been painted yet. / Jack Frost had started to paint him / the way he always painted / the Maple Leaf (Forever). / He had just begun on his hair, / a few red strokes, and then / Jack Frost had dropped the brush / and left him white, forever.”
- Line 42: “were warm in red and ermine;”
- Line 48: “clutching his tiny lily,”
- Line 50: “and the roads deep in snow?”
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“First Death in Nova Scotia” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Metaphor
The poem's metaphors illustrate how the speaker saw and experienced the world as a child. They demonstrate both her vivid, active imagination and her incomplete understanding of subjects like death.
For example, the speaker twice compares a marble tabletop—where a "stuffed loon" sits—to a "white, frozen lake." This is a fitting and thought-provoking metaphor on several levels. Loons are water birds, so they do nest on lakes and ponds. And the poem is set during a cold winter in Nova Scotia, so the surrounding lakes would certainly be frozen. It's apt and creative, then, for the speaker to compare the loon's tabletop to an icy lake; after all, both surfaces are cold, round, and white.
At the same time, loons don't live on frozen lakes; they migrate south in the winter. So there's something unsettling about the idea of a motionless loon on a frozen lake, just as there's something unsettling about a loon standing on a parlor table. The loon is there in the house because it's been "shot," "stuffed," and turned into a decoration. But to the young observer, who doesn't yet understand death, it still seems quasi-alive, as if the table might somehow be a version of its natural habitat.
The speaker also compares "Arthur's coffin" to "a little frosted cake" (lines 27-28). In other words, it's smallish (not elongated like an adult coffin), decorated (with flowers and/or carvings in the wood), and perhaps white, like cake icing. To her, the coffin looks appealing—a sign of her confusion about what death really represents.
The simile and extended metaphor involving "Jack Frost" (lines 32-40) further illustrate her struggle to wrap her mind around death. She doesn't fully grasp why Arthur looks "all white" except for the red of his hair—that is, she doesn't understand pallor mortis, or the paleness of corpses. So she invents her own explanation for Arthur's pallor: she compares him to a "doll," then imagines that "Jack Frost," who paints the leaves of autumn, tried painting Arthur red but quickly gave up.
Where metaphor appears in the poem:- Lines 15-16: “on his white, frozen lake, / the marble-topped table.”
- Lines 27-28: “Arthur's coffin was / a little frosted cake,”
- Line 30: “from his white, frozen lake.”
- Lines 32-40: “He was all white, like a doll / that hadn't been painted yet. / Jack Frost had started to paint him / the way he always painted / the Maple Leaf (Forever). / He had just begun on his hair, / a few red strokes, and then / Jack Frost had dropped the brush / and left him white, forever.”
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Anthropomorphism
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Juxtaposition
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Repetition
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“First Death in Nova Scotia” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Parlor
- Chromographs
- Edward, Prince of Wales; Princess Alexandra; King George; Queen Mary
- Stuffed loon
- Kept his own counsel
- Caressable
- Lily of the valley
- Jack Frost
- The Maple Leaf (Forever)
- Gracious
- Ermine
- Trains
- Page
- Court
Parlor-
(Location in poem: Line 1: “In the cold, cold parlor”)
Here referring to the sitting room of a house, a room typically dedicated to hosting and entertaining guests. (Though a wake is being held there, this "parlor" is not a funeral parlor.)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “First Death in Nova Scotia”
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Form
The poem contains five stanzas of 10 lines each. It follows a rough three-beat accentual meter (meaning that each line contains three strong stresses, even if they don't always fall in the same places). The poem doesn't follow a consistent rhyme scheme, although the last line of each stanza makes a full, imperfect, or identical rhyme with a previous line in the stanza. (Thus, "father" rhymes with "Arthur" in the first stanza, "desired" with "fired" in the second, "lake" with "cake" in the third, "forever" with "Forever" in the fourth, and "snow" with "go" in the fifth).
Overall, then, the poem is formally consistent, even a bit strict, in keeping with the formal occasion it describes. The slight looseness in the meter and rhyming, however, reflects the fact that this is a child's wake, narrated through a child's eyes. (Or, rather, through the eyes of an adult narrator recalling their childhood self.) Accentual verse, in particular, often appears in nursery rhymes and other children's poetry. Thus, the form of "First Death in Nova Scotia" mirrors its subtle mingling of adult and childhood perspectives.
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Meter
The poem follows a three-beat accentual meter. This means that each line contains three strongly stressed syllables, even as the syllable count and the placement of stresses vary from line to line. Look at lines 1-4, for example:
In the cold, cold parlor
my mother laid out Arthur
beneath the chromographs:
Edward, Prince of Wales,In line 1, the first stress occurs on the third syllable; in line 4, it occurs on the first. But the lines consistently contain three strong beats, as you'll notice if you say them aloud and tap a hand or foot as you go.
Accentual meter is often found in nursery rhymes and other children's and folk verse, so it's a fitting choice for this poem about children.
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Rhyme Scheme
The poem contains rhymes, but its rhyme scheme varies from stanza to stanza. Its one consistent feature is that the last line of each stanza rhymes with a word elsewhere in that stanza. Namely, "father" (line 10) rhymes with "Arthur" (line 2); "desired" (line 20) rhymes with "fired" (line 11); "lake" (line 30) rhymes with "cake" (line 28); "forever" (line 40) echoes "Forever" (line 36); and "snow" (line 50) rhymes with "go"(line 47). Three of these are full rhymes; the others are imperfect ("Arthur"/"father") or identical ("Forever"/"forever").
Other near-rhymes in the poem include "parlor"/"Arthur" (lines 1 and 2), "table"/"caressable" (lines 16 and 18), and "small"/"doll" (lines 31 and 32).
This loose structure makes a good match for the poem's rough accentual meter. The playful flexibility of the language makes it sound a bit like children's verse; in that way, it fits the poem's childhood world, even as it makes an unsettling vehicle for the poem's solemn subject. The rhyming final lines also give each stanza a strong sense of closure, which feels appropriate in a poem about the finality of death.
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“First Death in Nova Scotia” Speaker
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The speaker is an adult recalling a vivid scene from childhood. Although their name, gender, etc. are never specified, the details of the poem closely match Bishop's own experience (she lived in Nova Scotia during her early childhood, had an "Uncle Arthur" there, etc.). As a result, this guide refers to the speaker as "she" and assumes that the speaker is a version of the poet.
It's not clear exactly how old the speaker is during the events of the poem, but she must be fairly young, because her mother has to "lift[]" her up to view Arthur's body and "give[]" her a flower to put in the coffin (lines 24-26). In other words, she's too young to view the coffin on tiptoe, place the flower without help, etc., so she is probably no more than a toddler. (In real life, Bishop's mother was institutionalized when Bishop was five, and Bishop never saw her again.)
Though the speaker uses a sophisticated vocabulary (e.g., "chromographs"), her perceptions and points of reference are realistically childlike. For example, Arthur's pale body reminds her of "Jack Frost," a mythical character often used to explain fall and winter to kids (lines 34-40). She imagines, creatively but absurdly, that Arthur is going to join the English royalty whose portraits he's laid out beneath—then, like a bright child, starts to question her belief (lines 45-50). Thus, while using words that little kids wouldn't know, the speaker sensitively captures how she saw and imagined the world at a very young age.
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“First Death in Nova Scotia” Setting
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The poem's title establishes its setting: "Nova Scotia," one of the Maritime provinces of eastern Canada. Bishop lived for a time in Great Village, Nova Scotia—a very small village, despite the name—during her early childhood. Her "Uncle Arthur" (Arthur Bulmer) and his family lived there, too.
More specifically, the poem takes place in a home "parlor" during a "cold, cold" winter. Note that this is not a funeral parlor; young Arthur's wake is being held in the sitting room of a house, as the domestic decorations ("chromographs," "stuffed loon," etc.) make clear. The surrounding "roads [are] deep in snow," as often happens during winters in rural Canada.
The poem refers to other aspects of Canadian identity as well. Though legally an independent country, Canada remains part of the British Commonwealth, meaning that the King or Queen of England formally reigns over Canada as well. The pictures of royalty in this Canadian home ("Edward, Prince of Wales," "Princess Alexandra," and "King George with Queen Mary") reflect the country's ongoing affiliation with the British monarchy. In fact, the young speaker imagines that little Arthur, having died, will now go to England to serve the royal court—though it dawns on her that this is probably impossible.
The young speaker also relates a legend that "Jack Frost," the spirit of winter, paints the red "Maple Leaf (Forever)." The red maple leaf is Canada's national symbol and appears on its flag.
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Literary and Historical Context of “First Death in Nova Scotia”
Literary Context
Elizabeth Bishop was a celebrated American poet, as well as a short story writer, painter, and translator. "First Death in Nova Scotia" appears in her collection Questions of Travel (1965), which also contains such well-known poems as "The Armadillo," "Filling Station," and "Visits to St. Elizabeths." It's a mid-career poem, written after her previous volume, North & South / A Cold Spring (1955), won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. It's also rooted in autobiography; her "little cousin Arthur" Bulmer, son of her "Uncle Arthur" and Aunt Mabel, died when Bishop herself was a small child in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
Bishop created visual art throughout her life and kept multimedia journals. Her work is sometimes described as imagistic; she tends to observe the physical world closely and encode her conclusions in minute descriptive details, often while exploring themes of loss, belonging, and yearning.
The time frame of Bishop's career places her within the generation of Confessional poets. These poets—who included Bishop's peers Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath, as well as her longtime friend Robert Lowell—emphasized the autobiographical in their poetry, often highlighting intense emotional and psychological experiences. Bishop, however, was critical of this mode of writing and resisted including such detailed or direct personal accounts in her poems. Though her poems, including "First Death in Nova Scotia," draw on her life, they often do so with a degree of distance and convey their feeling in indirect or ironic ways.
Bishop was a gay woman writer in the male-dominated 20th-century literary world, and even her implied portrayals of same-sex love led to rejections from publications like Poetry and the New Yorker. It's fair, then, to see her restrained, indirect approach as both an artistic decision and a professional prerequisite. She asserted that she didn't want to be judged on the basis of her sexual orientation or gender, but on the quality of her work as a poet.
Historical Context
After growing up in Nova Scotia, Canada and the northeastern United States, Bishop traveled extensively throughout southern Europe and northern Africa, recording many of her observations in verse. Intending to take a short trip, Bishop traveled to Brazil in 1951 and ended up living there for 15 years. Bishop's extensive travels fed her interest in international literature, and she published translations of poetry originally written in French, Spanish, and (most famously) Portuguese. At the same time, her writing occasionally glances back to Canada, as in "The Moose" and "First Death in Nova Scotia." This poem even alludes to the red "Maple Leaf," the Canadian national symbol.
The mid-20th century was a tumultuous time in world history, as political instability and social tensions bubbled over around the globe. The 1960s, when this poem appeared, were particularly conflict-ridden. However, Bishop’s poems rarely address conflicts and world events directly. Instead, they tend to confront universal human struggles, such as grief and the drive to be understood.
"First Death in Nova Scotia" does refer to several historical figures, all members of the British royal family: "Edward, Prince of Wales" (later King Edward VII, 1841-1910), "Princess Alexandra" (later Queen Alexandra, 1844-1925), "King George" (George V, 1865-1936), and "Queen Mary" (Mary of Teck, 1867-1953). All of these figures were deceased by the time Bishop published the poem, though several were still alive during her early childhood, when the poem takes place. Their pictures in the family parlor are "chromographs" (a.k.a. chromolithographs), made using an old-fashioned color printing process.
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More “First Death in Nova Scotia” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poet's Life — Read a biography of Elizabeth Bishop at the Poetry Foundation.
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The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of "First Death in Nova Scotia."
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Bishop in Nova Scotia — Check out the biography, photos, and other resources offered by the Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia.
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A Bishop Documentary — Watch a short film about Bishop's life and art.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Elizabeth Bishop
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