A Miracle for Breakfast

The sestina form puts “A Miracle for Breakfast” into a historical literary context that dates back to the late 1500s when Sir Philip Sidney published his double sestina "Ye Goatherd Gods" (1577-80). With “A Miracle for Breakfast,” Bishop brings the traditional form into her present—the 1930s.

In the 1930s, Surrealism, which took off after World War I, remained relevant; Bishop demonstrates her connection to the movement with the uncanny image of the man on the balcony and the string of associations that conjure the vision of the “beautiful villa” (Line 26). Surrealists stressed the strangeness of a person’s thoughts and modern everyday life. They believed a person’s perceptions could unlock unusual sights, like the uncommon breakfast the speaker experiences in Bishop’s poem.

In the first part of the 1900s, the literary movements Imagism and Modernism also developed. Practiced by American poets like Ezra Pound, H. D., and Amy Lowell, Imagists believed the best poems conveyed a practice image, which is what Bishop does throughout “A Miracle for Breakfast” since she carefully describes the man on the balcony and the vision of the speaker’s luxurious “mansion” (Line 32). Meanwhile, Modernists like T.S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein focused on the fragmentation and isolation of contemporary life.